F.Y.B.A.

SOCIOLOGY PAPER - IFOUNDATION OF SOCIOLOGY

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SOCIOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE

Contents :

*Perspectives in sociology: - Functionalist, Conflict, Interpretive,Critical.

*Sociology Imagination: - Developing a sociological outlook

*Significance of sociology

Unit Structure :

1.0 Objectives

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Definition

1.3 Subject matter of sociology

1.4 Is Sociology a science ?

1.5 Nature of sociology

1.6 Scope of sociology

1.7 Early thinkers

1.8 Perspectives in sociology

1.8.1 Fuctionalist perspective

1.8.2 Conflict perspective

1.8.3 Interactionist perspective

1.8.4 Critical perspective

1.0 OBJECTIVES:-

To give a basic understanding of sociology.

To know the meaning and subject matter of sociology

To understand the nature of scientific study

To know the nature and scope of sociology

To study the contribution of early thinkers towards thedevelopment of sociology

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To familiarize the students with various sociologicalperspectives

1.1. INTRODUCTION:

In the family of social sciences, Sociology is comparatively anew entrant. But because of its dealing with social problems, socialrelationships and social interactions the importance of the study ofthis subject has considerably increased. It has considerablydeveloped in methodology, scope and approach. Attempts are nowbeing made to study every social problem scientifically andobjectively, eliminating subjectivity to the extent possible adistinctive way of examining human interactions. Sociology is thesystematic study of social behavior and human groups. It focusesprimarily on the influence of social relationships upon people’sattitudes and behavior and on how societies are established andchange. As a field of study sociology has a very broad scope. Itdeals with families, gangs, business firms, computer networks,political parties, schools, religions, and labor unions. It is concernedwith love, poverty, conformity, technology, discrimination, illness,alienation, overpopulation and community.

1.2. DEFINITION:

Sociology is being defined differently by our sociologists andother’s each one of course, has its own news about the nature andscope of the subject, as he conceives it.

According to Ward “Sociology is science of society”.

George Simmel opines that it is a subject which studies humaninter-relationship.

Giddins is of the view that “Sociology is scientific study ofsociety”.

Max Weber has viewed sociology as “Science which attemptsimperative understanding of social actions”.

Sorokin is of the opinion that sociology is a study first of all therelationship and correlations between various classes...second between the social and non social aspects of life andthird it studies general characteristics common to all classesof society.

Ogburn has said that, “Sociology is concerned with the studyof social life and its relations to the factors of culture, naturalenvironment, heredity and group.”

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Durkheim while defining sociology has said that, “It is the scienceof collective representation.”

We may thus conclude these definitions with the definition of E.S.Bogardus when he says that, “Sociology may be defined asthe study of the ways in which social experiences function indeveloping, maturing and repressing human beings throughinter-personal stimulations.”

From all these definitions it becomes clear that sociology isconcerned with social relationships and studies society, humaninteractions, inter-personal and intra-personal relations. It tries tostudy scientifically social institutions, organizations and systems.These definitions also make it amply clear that sociologists view thesubject differently and that there is no unanimity in this regard.

1.3. SUBJECT MATTER OF SOCIOLOGY:

while discussing its subject matter of sociologist, Sorokinsaid that, “It seems to be a study, first of the relationship andcorrelation between various classes of social phenomena”(correlation between economic and religious, family and moral,judicial and economic, mobility and political phenomena and so on);second that between social and non social (geographical,biological) phenomena; third the study of general characteristicscommon to all classes of phenomena. Thus according to his viewpoint sociology studies social events, relationships between socialand non social phenomena and generalized study of facts commonto all aspects of social life.

In his book ‘Society, Culture and Personality’ he has saidthat sociology is more or less concerned with the working of humanbeings. In this study he covers the study of human behavior, socialorganizations, social phenomena and social values. He is thusaltogether opposed to formal school of thought.

Check Your Progress

1. Define Sociology.2. Discuss its subject matter.

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1.4. IS SOCIOLOGY A SCIENCE?

There is a continuing controversy about the nature ofsociology. According to some sociologists it is a science, whileothers strongly refute this claim.

What is a scientific study? For a scientific study it isessential that the whole study should be systematic and withoutany subjectivity. A scientist is supposed to have a clear vision and apointed approach. He should have capacity to record unbiaseddecisions and properly classify data’s. He should also have visionto collect only such data as is useful for his study. He shouldconclude his findings after verification of data’s and not on moralityor certain pre-supposed philosophies, nations and ideas.

The most important element of a scientific study is that ascientist should deal with bear facts and not with ideal situations.Thus this study should be both factual and systematic. Thenanother element is that its results should have universal application.Then in a scientific study there should be cause effect relationshipand it should also be capable of making certain safe predictions.

Is Sociology A Science? Now a question arises as towhether sociology is science or not. Those who support the causeof sociology as science plead that a present day sociologists mustbe methodological. He must base his conclusions on impartiallycollected, analyzed and interpreted data. He should also be willingto get his data tested anywhere to established its validity. They alsoargue that like natural scientists, Sociologists are concerned withhard facts and not with ideal situations. They try to analyses facts ofsocial life as these are. They also believe that there are manysocial facts and theories which the sociologists have developedafter hard labor and these are universally applicable, under similarcircumstances. They also point out that like natural scientists, thesociologists are very much concerned with cause effect relationshipe.g. social stratification and social disorganizations are the outcomeof certain causes, which have their effects as well. As with thenatural scientists, so with the sociologists, it is equal true that likethe former the latter can make some safe predictions. They thusargue that “sociology is a science which attempts the interpretativeunder-standing of social action in order to arrive at a casualexplanation of its causes and effects.”

Sociology- Not a Science: there is other side of the pictureas well. Many believe that society is not a perfect science. Like theresults of natural sciences, the results obtained by social scientistscannot be generalized and these also cannot be same under allcircumstances and at all places. The conditions always differ from

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society to society and social changes are unavoidable. These arealso very complex. Then it is said that each human beings has hisown limitations and he provides information keeping thoselimitations into consideration. He is not prepared to disclose secretsand thus the information provided is not factual. It is also said thatthe many situations are not within the control of sociologists andrepeat experimentation is almost impossible.

Each sociologist has subjective approach to the problemunder investigation. There is no stage of investigation in whichthere is no subjectivity. Each one has some secrets which he is notprepared to disclose to the investigators. Unlike natural scientist, asociologist has no laboratory facilities and also has no control overmaterial to be experimented i.e. human beings. Not only this, but itis not possible to repeat experiments. It is more or less not possibleto make the safe predictions because nature of social problemswith which the sociologists are not the same all over the world.

Check Your Progress

1. Is sociology a science? Discuss it through the differencebetween natural and social sciences

1.5. NATURE OF SOCIOLOGY:

What is real nature of sociology about this controversy islikely to continue. According to Robert Stead Sociology is a socialscience and not a natural science, because it deals with humanbeings and social phenomena. It is positive and not normativescience because it studies social phenomena as it is and not as itought to be. It is pure and not applied science because it studiesunderlying factors of a social phenomenon. Sociology is an abstractand not a concrete science because it studies society in general. Itdeals with society, which in itself is abstract and as such the subjectcannot be concrete. It is a science of generalization and not that ofparticularization because it studies a social problem in general andnot in particular way. It does not study a social phenomenon from aparticular angle. It is an empirical or rational science because ittries to follow logical method of data collection.

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1.6 SCOPE OF THE SOCIOLOGY

Sociologist and others differ what should be the scope ofsociology. August Comte makes us believe that sociology shouldtry to study social phenomena on scientific lines. He has thus laidstress on scientific approach. Emile Durkheim has tried toseparate sociology from other social science subjects and also triedto give an independent status to this subject. In his own way Paretohas tried to give it scientific orientation. According to him insociology there should be no place for inferences. He is sure thatthere is basic unity among various social phenomena. He is of theview that sociology is much of science and social problems shouldand can be scientifically studied. Max Weber has however said thatsociology should merely be interpretative understanding of socialactions and nothing beyond that.

Former or Specialist School of Thought: There are two mainschools of thought about the scope of sociology. Formal school ofthought believes that scope of sociology should not be generalizedbut confined to the study of some specific aspects of society. Theexponents of this school wish to keep the subject pure andindependent. According to them it should deal with socialrelationships, social activities and processes of socialization.

Max Weber, who is the chief exponent of this school ofthought, has said that sociology should deal with interpretations ofsocial behaviors only.

Vier Kandt, , who is another exponent of this school ofthought, is of the view that sociology should confine itself to thestudy of formal and not the actual behavior of the people in thesociety.

Simmel has given an abstract concept of sociology, in whichstress has been laid on social relationship and social inter-actions.For him, every society is the mix of this two. Social relations arenothing but social interactions between two individuals. He has saidthat society is not collections of individuals but it is essentially apsychic inter-action between the individuals. It is sum total of socialrelations between the individuals living in it.

According to Simmel sociology should not be made ageneral science devoted to the study of social relations in general.It should be confined to the study of specific social relationsbecause now these are being studied in the context of socialproduction and social heritage.

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Vone Wiese is another exponent of this school of thought.He believes that subject matter of sociology is different from othersocial sciences. He does not agree with the idea that sociology iscombination of social sciences but it is a subject which combinesdifferent social science subjects. For him sociology as a specialscience has more importance than general sociology.

It should separate its subject matter from other social sciences.

Synthetic School of Thought: The school of thought believes thatsociology should study society as a whole and not confine itself tothe study of only limited social problems. Auguste comte believesthat the scope of sociology should be considerably widened.According to him the study of one aspect of society can lead tomisleading results because all aspects of society, like parts ofhuman body, are inter-linked. Hobb-House and Sorokin alsocontribute to this view point. They too believe that Sociology shouldstudy society as a whole. The supporters of this school of thoughtagree that in our modern times no social science subject canremain isolated altogether ignoring other subjects of study.The scope of sociology, they argue should be general and notnarrow. Durkheim has gone to the extent of saying that “Sociologyis science of collective representation.”

Sorokin is the main exponent of this school of thought. He isnot satisfied with the traditional views about sociology andthus wants to give it a new approach. According to him sociology isa systematic science and it has manifold inter-actions. It isconcerned with general facts of social life. He is keen to givesystematic interpretation of society.

Check Your Progress

Examine the nature and scope of sociology in detail

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1.7. EARLY THINKERS:-

August Comte :

In France, the 19th Century was an unsettling time for thenation’s intellectuals. French monarchy had been deposed in therevolution of 1789 and Napoleon had suffered defeat in his effort toconquer Europe. Philosophers and intellectuals were finding theways out to improve the society. August Comte is considered asthe most influential philosopher of the early 1800s. He believed thatin order to improve society the theoretical science of society shouldbe developed and a systematic investigation of behavior should becarried. He Coined the term sociology to apply to the science ofhuman behaviors. The term Sociology has been derived from Latinword ‘socious’ means ‘society’ and Greek word ‘logus’ means‘science’.

Comte hoped that the systematic study of social behaviorwould eventually lead to more rational human interactions. InComte’s hierarchy of the Sciences, Sociology was at the top. Hecalled it the “queen”, and its practioners “scientist-priests.”

Emile Derkheim :

Durkheim is considered as one of the founding fathers ofsociology. He made many pioneering contributions to Sociologyincluding his most important theoretical work on Suicide. Durkheim(1858-1917) was son of a rabbi he was educated in both Franceand Germany. He has an impressive academic record and wasappointed as one of the first professors of the Sociology in France.Durkheim asserted that behavior must be understood in the largersocial context, rather an individual action.

Though intensive study of Arunta tribe, he focused on theimportant functions of religion in reinforcing group Solidarity.According to Durkheim the growing division of labor in industrialsociety and increasing specialization leads to what he called asAnomie. In the state on anomie the confusion and the inability tocope with the circumstances also results in cases of suicide.

Max Weber:

Max Weber was born in Germany (1864-1920). He studiedlegal and economic history, but gradually developed an interest insociology. Later he became professor and taught at variousGerman universities. He taught the “Verstehen”, to his students. Hesaid that in order to fully comprehend behavior, we must learn thesubjective meanings people attach to their actions- how they

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themselves view and explain their behavior. He is also credited forhis key conceptual tool: the Ideal type. The concept of ideal typecan be used to study the family, religion, authority, and economicsystems, as well as the analyze bureaucracy.

Karl Marx:

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a critique of existing institutionsthat a conventional academic career was impossible. He was arevolutionary and spent most of his life in exile from his nativeGermany. He was very much influenced by the ideas of FriedichEngles (1820-1895) with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.

Marx lived in extreme poverty in England. He pawned mostof his possessions, and several of his children died of malnutritionand disease.

In Marx’s analysis, society was fundamentally dividedbetween two classes i.e. Bourgoise and Plorotariate who haveopposite interests. In his examination of industrial society, he sawthe factory as the center of conflict between the exploiters (theowners of the means of production and the exploited (the workers).

Mar’x influence on contemporary thinking has beendramatic. His writings inspired those who led the communistrevolutions in Russia, Vhina, Cuba, Victnam, and elsewhere.

Check Your Progress

Briefly analyze the contribution of early thinkers to the developmentof sociology.

1.8. PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIOLOGY:-

Sociologists view society in different ways. Some see theworld basically as a stable and ongoing entity. They are impressedwith the endurance of the family, organized religion, and othersocial institutions. Some sociologists see society as composed of

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many groups in conflict, competing for scarce resources. To othersociologists, the most fascinating aspects of the social world arethe everyday, routine interactions among individuals that wesometimes take for granted. The four perspectives that are mostwidely used by sociologists will provide an introductory look at thediscipline. These are the functionalist, conflict, interactionist andcritical perspectives.

1.8.1. Functionalist Perspective:-

Also known as functionalism and structural functionalism,functionalist perspective is based on the assumption that society isstable, orderly system. This stable system is characterized bysocietal consensus, whereby the majority of members show acommon set of values, belief and behavioral expectation. Accordingto this perspective a society is composed of interrelated parts, eachof which serves a function and contributes to the overall stability ofthe society. Societies develop social structure or institutions thatpersist bcoz they play a part in helping society survive. Theseinstitutions include the family, education, govt., religion, and theeconomy. If anything adverse happens to one of these institutionsor part are affected and the system no longer functions properly.

Talcott Parsons (1902-1979). a Harvard university sociologistwas a key figure in the development of functionalist theory. Parsonhad been greatly influenced by the works of Emile Durkheim, MaxWeber and other European sociologists. Under the functionalistapproach, if an aspect of social life does not contribute to a societystability or survival- if it does not serve some identifiably usefulfunction or promote value consensus among member of a society-it will not be passed on from one generation to the next.

As an example of the functionalist perspective, let usexamine prostitution. Why is it that a practice so widely condemnedcontinues to display such persistence and vitality? Functionalistssuggest that prostitution satisfies needs of patrons that may not bereadily met through more socially acceptable forms such ascourtship or marriage. The “buyer” receives sex without anyresponsibility for procreation or sentimental attachment; at thesame time, the “seller” gains a livelihood through this exchange.

Through such an examination, we can concludethat prostitution does perform certain functions that society thatseems to need. However, this is not to suggest that prostitution is adesirable or legitimate form of social behavior.

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Manifest and Latent Functions:-

Manifest function are intended or overly recognized by theparticipants in a social unit. In contrast, latent function is unintendedfunction that is hidden and remains unacknowledged byparticipants. For example, a manifest function of education is thetransmission of knowledge and skills from 1 generation to the next,a latent function is the establishment of social relations andnetworks. Merton noted that all features of a social system may notbe functional at all times, dysfunctions are the un-desirableconsequences of any element of a society. A dysfunction ofeducation in United States is the perpetuation of gender, racial andclam inequalities. Such dysfunction may threaten the capacity of asociety to adopt and survive.

1.8.2.Conflict Perspective:-

According to conflict perspectives, group in society areengaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scareresources. Conflict may take the form of politics, litigation,negotiations or family discussions about financial matter. Simmel,Marx and Weber contributed significantly to this perspective byfocusing on the inevitability of clashes between social groups.Today, advocates of the conflict perspective view social continuouspower struggle among competing social group.

Karl Marx viewed struggle between social classes asinevitable, given the exploitation of workers under capitalism.Expanding on Marx’s work, sociologists and other social scientisthave come to see conflict not merely as a class phenomenon butas a part of everyday life in all societies. Thus, in studying anyculture, organization, or social group, sociologists want to knowwho benefits, who suffers and who dominates at the expense ofother. They are concerned with the conflict between women andmen, parents and children, cities and suburbs and whites andAfrican Americans, to name only few. In studying such questions,conflict theorists are interested in how society’s institutions-including the family, govt., religion, education and the media- mayhelp to maintain the privileges of some groups and keep others in asubservient position.

Like functionalist, conflict sociologists tend to use theMarco-level approach. Obviously, through, there is a strikingdifference between these two sociological perspectives. Conflicttheorists are primarily concerned with the kinds of changes that canbring about, whereas functionalists look for stability and consensus.

The conflict model is viewed as more “radial” and “activist”because of its emphasis on social change and the need for

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redistribution of resources to eliminate existing social inequality. Onthe other hand, the functionalist perspective, because of its focuson stability, is generally seen as more “conservation”(Dahrendorf,1958)

Currently, conflict theory is accepted within the discipline ofsociology as one valid way to gain insight into a society.

One important contribution of conflict theory is that it hasencouraged sociologists to view society through the eyes of thosesegments of the population that rarely influence decision making.

Feminist theory builds in important way on the conflictperspective. Like other conflict theorists, feminist scholars seegender differences as a reflection of the subjugation of one group(women) by another group (men). Drawing on the work of Marx $Engels, contemporary feminist theorists often view women’ssubordination as inherent in capitalist societies. Some radicalfeminist theorists, however, view the oppression of women asinevitable in all male-dominated societies, including those labeledas capitalist, socialist and communist (Tuchman,1992).

1.8.3.Interactionist or Interpretive:-

The functionalist and conflict perspectives both analyzebehavior in terms of society wide patterns. However, manycontemporary sociologists are more interested in understandingsociety as a whole through an examination of social interactionssuch as small groups conducting meetings, two friends talkingcasually with each other, a family celebrating a birthday and soforth. The interactionist perspective generalizes about fundamentalor everyday forms of social interaction. Interactionism is asociological framework for viewing human beings as living in aworld of meaningful objects. These “objects” may include materialthings, actions, other people, relationships and even symbols.Focusing on everyday behavior permits interactions to betterunderstand the larger society.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is widely regarded asthe founder of the interactionist perspective. Mead was interested inobserving the minutest forms of communication-smiles, frowns,nods of the head- and in understanding how such individualbehavior was influenced by the larger context of a group or society.

Interactionists see symbols as an especially important partof human communication. In fact, the interactionist perspective issometime referred to as the symbolic interactionist perspective.Such researchers note that both a clenched fist and a salute havesocial meaning which are shared and understood by the members

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of a society. In the U.S, a salute symbolizes respect, while aclenched fist signifies defiance. However in another culture diffgestures might be used to convey a feeling of respect or defiance.

Let us examine how various societies portray suicidewithout the use of words. People in the U.S point a finger at thehead (shooting); urban Japanese bring a fist against the stomach(stabbing); and the south fore of Papua , New Guinea , clench ahand at the throat (hanging). These types of symbolic interactionare classified as forms of nonverbal communication, which caninclude many other gestures, facial expressions, and postures.

Erving Goffman (1922-1982) made a distinctivecontribution by popularizing a particular type of interactionistmethod known as the dramaturgical approach. The dramaturgistcompares everyday life to the setting of the theater and stage. Justas actors present certain images, all of us seek to present particularfeatures of our personalities while we hide other qualities. Thus, ina class, we may feel the need to project a serious image; at a party,it may seem important to look like a relaxed and entertainingperson.

1.8.4.Critical Perspective:-

This perspective says that we live in a society dominatedcapitalist society, based on exchange principles of value and profit.Capitalist society is not a peaceful society but based on unequalexchanges of power and privileges. Critical theory is a social theorywhose aim is critiquing and changing society and culture, unliketraditional theory whose aim is only understanding or explaining it.For eg. Instead of seeing the behavior of homeless youth as ofcriminal behaviour, the critical perspective would ask why did theyouth become homeless and why are they connected to criminalbehaviour?

Critical theorists like Horkheimer criticized science calling itharmful and destructive as it is controlled by the elite and powerful.They also critique the role of media in society, as it diverts theattention of people and only makes them consumers.

Check Your Progress

1. Critically analyse various perspectives in sociology.

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Summary :

In the family of social sciences, sociology is a new entrant.Sociologists are not unanimous about definition of sociology. Widevariety of definition of the subject shows that there are differencesof opinion about the scope of the subject. These definitionshowever make clear that sociology is concerned with humanrelations and social institutions.

There is a continuing controversy about the nature ofsociology. Some claim sociology to be a science where as somerefute this claim.

Viewes also differ about the scope of sociology. The formalschool of thought believe that scope of sociology should not begeneralized wheras synthetic school believes that sociology shouldstudy society as a whole.

August Comte is considered as the most influencialphilosopher of 1800s. He is called as the father of sociology.Hehoped that systemstic study of social behavior will eventually leadto more rational interaction.

Durkiem made pioneering contribution to sociology and isremembered as one of the founding fathers of sociology.

Weber is known for “Verstehen”.He said inorder to fullycomprehend behavior we must iearn the subjective meaning peopleattach to their action.

Marx’s theory of class struggle is an incredible contributionto sociology in analyzing the conflict.His influence on contemporarythinking has been dramatic.

Sociologists view society in different way.The fourperspectives i.e functionalist,conflict,interactionalist and critical aremost widely used by sociologists to give an ntroductory look at thediscipline.Functionalist perspective is based on the assumption thatsociety is stable ,orderly system .Society is composed ofinterrelated parts,each of which serves a function and contribute tothe overall stability of the society.

According to conflict perspective,groups in society areengage in a continuous power struggle for control of scareresources.

Many sociologists are more interested in understandingsociety through social interactions.The interactionist perspective

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generalizes about fundamental or everyday forms of socialinteraction.

Critical perspective says that we live in a society,based onexchange principles of value and profit.

Questions:

1. “Sociology is a systematic study of social behavior and humangroup”.discuss the statement with reference to various definitionand subject matt er of sociology.

2. What is meant by scientific study?Illustrate with examples tosupport the argument whether sociology in a science or not.

3. Critically anlyse the nature and scope of sociologu.Elaborate onFormer and synthetic school of thoughts.

4. Briefly highlight the contribution of ealy thinkers towards thedevelopment of sociology.

5. Discuss the various perspectives in sociology.Which one do uthink is important and why?

Reference and readings:

Abraham Francis (2010); Contemporary Sociology: AnIntroduction to Concepts and Theories. New Delhi: OxfordUniversity press.

Giddens, Anthony (2001); Sociology; 4th edition; Polity Press.

Ferrante Joan (2006); Sociology-A Global Perspective; 6thedition; Thomson Wadsworth; USA.

Kendall Diana (2007); Sociology in Our Times; The Essentials.6th edition; Thomson Wadsworth; USA.

Schaeffer and Lamm (1988); Sociology; 6th edition; McGraw Hill

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SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Unit structure:

2.0 Objectives

2.1 Sociological imagination.

2.2 Developing a sociological outlook.

2.3 Importance /significance and practical utility of sociology.

2.3.1 Importance of study of sociology.

2.3.2 Significance of sociology.

2.3.3 Careers and specialization in sociology.

2.0 OBJECTIVES:

To develop a sociological outlook by enhancing the sociologicalimagination.

To Know the importance of the study of sociology.

To understand the significance of sociology.

To make students aware of the practical utility of sociology inday –to-day life.

To explore the various specialization and career opportunities insociology.

2.1. THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION:

Sociologist C. Wright (1959 b) described sociologicalreasoning as the “Sociological imagination- the ability to see therelationship between individual experiences and the larger society.This awareness enables us to understand the link between ourpersonal experiences and the social context in which they occur.The sociological imagination helps us distinguish between personaltrouble and social (or public) issues. ( Kendall ; 2007).

A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability toview one’s own Society as an outsider would, rather than from thelimited perspective of personal experiences and cultural biases.Sociological imagination allow us to go beyond personalexperience and in attempting to understand social behavior,

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sociologists rely on an unusual type of creating thinking. C. WrightMills (1959) described such thinking as the sociologicalimagination- an awareness of the relationship between anindividual and the wider society. This awareness allows people (notsimply sociologists) to comprehend the links between theirimmediate, personal social settings and the remote, impersonalsocial world that surrounds them and helps to shape them.

A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability toview one’s own society as an outsider would, rather than from thelimited perspective of personal experiences and cultural biases.Sociological imagination allows us to go beyond personalexperiences and observations to understand broader public issues.Unemployment, for example, is unquestionably a personal hardshipfor a man or woman without a job. However, C. Wright Mills pointedout that when unemployment is a social problem shared by millionsof people, it is appropriate to question the way that a society isstructured or organized. Similarly, Mills advocated use of thesociological imagination to view divorce not simply as the personalproblem of a particular man and woman, but rather as a structuralproblem, since it is the outcome of many marriages. And he waswriting this in the 1950s, when the divorce rate was but a fraction ofwhat it is today ( I . Horowitz, 1983:87-108)

Sociological imagination can bring new understanding todaily life around us.

2.2.DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGICAL OUTLOOK

The sociological imagination require us, above all, to ‘thinkourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily life in order tolook at them a new. Consider the simple act of drinking Coffee.What could we find to say, from a sociological point of view aboutsuch an apparently uninteresting piece of behavior An enormousamount.

We could point out first of all that coffee is not justrefreshment. It possesses Symbolic value as part of our day-to-daySocial activities, Often the ritual associated with coffee drinking ismuch more important than the act of consuming the drink itself. Formany westerners the morning cup of coffee stands at the centre ofa personal routine. It is an essential first step to starting the day.Morning coffee is often followed later in the day by coffee withothers-the basis of a social ritual. Two people who arrange to meetfor coffee are probably more interested in getting together &chatting than in what they actually drink. Drinking and eating in allsocieties, in fact, provide occasions for social interaction and theenactment of rituals- and these offer a rich subject matter forsociological study.

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Second, coffee is a drug, containing caffeine, which has aStimulating effect on the brain. Many people drink coffee for theextra lift it provides. Long days at the office and late nights studyingare made more tolerable by coffee breaks. Coffee is a habit –forming substance, but coffee addicts are not regarded by mostpeople in Western culture as drug users.

Third the individual who drinks cup of coffee is caught up ina complicated set of social & economic relationships stretchingacross the world. Coffee is a product which links people in some ofthe wealthiest & most impoverished parts of the planet, it isconsumed in great quantities in wealthy Countries, but is grownprimarily in poor ones, and it provides many countries, with theirlargest source of foreign exchange. The production & transportationof coffee require continuous transactions between peoplethousands of miles away from the coffee drinker. Studying suchglobal transactions is an important task of sociology since manyaspects of our lives are now affected by worldwide social influencesand communications.

Fourth, the act of sipping a coffee presumes a wholeprocess of past social & economic development. Along with othernow familiar items of western diets – like teas, bananas, potatoes &white sugar – coffee became widely consumed only from the late1800s. Although the drink originated in the Middle East , its massconsumption dates, from the period of Western expansion about acentury & a half ago. Virtually all the coffee we drink today comesfrom areas (South America & Africa) that were colonized byEuropeans, it is in no sense a ‘natural’ part of the Western diet. Thecolonial legacy has had an enormous impact of the development ofthe global coffee trade.

Fifth coffee is a product that stands at the heart ofcontemporary debates, about globalization, international trade,human rights & environmental destruction. As coffee has grown inpopularity, it has become ‘branded’ & politicized; the decisions thatconsumers make about what kind of coffee to drink & where topurchase it have become life style choices. Individuals may chooseto drink only organic coffee, natural decaffeinated coffee or coffeethat has been ‘fairly traded’ through schemes, that pay full marketprices, to small coffee producers in developing countries. They mayopt to patronize ‘independent’ coffee houses, rather than corporatecoffee chains such as starbuch which is a brand in UK . Coffeedrinkers might decide to boycott coffee from certain, with poorhuman rights & environmental records. Sociologist are interested tounderstand how globalization heightens people awareness ofissues accruing in distant corners of the planet & prompts them toact on new knowledge in their own life.

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Check Your Progress

1. What is meant by sociological imagination .Discuss thesignificance of sociological outlook in understanding and analysis ofindividuals existence in day to day society

2. Critically examine the usage of mobile phone in contemporarysociety through your sociological imagination

2.3 IMPORTANCE/ SIGNIFICANCE & PRACTICALUTILITY OF SOCIOLOGY:

Sociology as a subject of study is a new comer in the familyof social sciences but today it has occupied very important position,which signifies its utility. It has become very important because it isconcerned with human beings who act and react in the Society.

Sociology studies human resources and determines theirsocial strength. It is a body of knowledge which studies socialrelationships in a systematic way. Needless to say that theserelationships are very important for proper conduct of human life.

2.3.1.Importance of Study of Sociology: Sociology is becomingquite popular subject of study because it has some obviousadvantages. These may briefly be discussed as under:-

1. It is a subject which helps us in assessing available humanresources and extent of human resources needed for solving oursocial problems. In this way sociology helps in human planningprocess which contributes significantly in economic problem.

2. It provides us basic and fundamental knowledge about humansociety, which includes strong and weak points of society, includinghuman relationships. In this way it saves us from duping in thedark.

3. Each society is faced with social problems, which in turncreate economic and political problems. Some of the social evils

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are deep rooted and it is essential that these should be rooted out.Sociology helps us both in identifying those problems and findingout their solution. Without proper understanding magnitude of theproblems, these can not be properly tackled.

4. It is sociology which helps us in conciliation and adjustment.Each society has diverse elements. These, if not properlyreconciled, can result in dis-organization and de-stabilization of thesociety. It is sociology which helps us in understanding the extent ofdiversity and the way in which this diversity can be converted intohomogeneity.

5. It is sociology which helps us in social reconstructionbecomes easy.

6. Each society has its cultural heritage and wants to preservethat. It is sociology which high-lights and researches past cultureheritages and also helps in the development and growth ofcosmopolitan culture, so that there are no cultural clashes.

7. It helps in bringing family stability. It is sociology which helpsus in identifying the causes of family instability and familydisorganization. It is again sociology which tells us how emergingde-stabilizing trends in the family should be checked, so that strongfamily system continues.

8. It is sociology which helps us in understanding socialproblems. Many social problems remain unidentified and many withthe passage of time become maladies. It is essential that theseshould be timely checked before their tackling becomes difficult. Itis sociology which helps us in timely identifying of social problems.

9. It helps us in proper under standing the needs of socialrelationship and the way in which this relationship should bemaintained.

10. It is sociology which makes us tolerant by telling us good pointsand healthy customs, traditions, norms and value of other societiesIt enables us to appreciate what is the best in them which needs tobe adjusted in our life style. Thus sociology helps us in toleratingothers and appreciating their view point.

2.3.2.Importance of Study of Sociology in India :

Study of sociology is very important for India . It is becausewe are a developing society and our rulers in the past not only triedto solve our social problems but also allowed these to get deeprooted.

The sociologists in India can help us in understanding deeprooted cause of casteism and regionalism, which today pose agreat threat to our social, economic and political system. They can

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also tell us to why really untouchability is not getting rooted out andcorruption at all levels in our society is on the increase

Against sociologists in India can play a significant role inour national and emotional integration by identifying the areaswhere such integration can easily be possible. This can be donewith the help of scientific study of customs and traditions. Thesociologist can also help in knowing why efforts made so far toraise the living standard of weaker sections of society have failed.In fact in our society the sociologists can play a big role because itis passing through very difficult stages of social transition and whenit on the cross roads, the sociologists alone can provide properdirection and give proper lead. As already pointed out taskbecomes difficult because our society is full of diversities andneither problems of all sections of society are same nor solutioncan be uniform.

2.3.2 Significance Of Sociology:-

Sociology has many practical implications, for our lives, as C.Mills emphasized.

1. Awareness Of Cultural Differences:-

First sociologist allows us to see the social world from manyperspectives. Quite often, if we understand how people live, we canhave better idea about their problems. Policies, which are meant forsolving the problems of people’s may fail if they have notunderstood the life of people. Example – Policies regarding tribal,or slum dwellers rehabilitation or street hawkers shifting bardancer’s profession or even allowing shopkeepers to have latenight business, all require practical knowledge of their life.

2. Assessing The Effect Of Policies:-

Many policies related to employment or rehabilitation ofpeople failed miserable since they do not make use of the aims &real needs of people. Sociologist brings the basic needs, &objectives of people are concerned into light so that thegovernment can understand the causes of failure. Unless peopleare involved in any programmed mean for them, the programme isnot going to be successful. Sociological research points, outdeficiencies, in the policy and discrepancy between the people’saims & the policy aims.

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3. Self Enlightenment:-

Sociology provides, knowledge to understand self.Sociology helps us to know why we behave in a particular manner.Many self help groups- Alcoholics, dog lovers, Anonymous,environmentalist, Senior citizen group have learned to helpthemselves without being dependent on government.

Check Your Progress

1. Elaborate on the significance, importance and practical utilityof sociology in everyday life.

2.3.3 Careers & Specialization in Sociology:

Sociology is not only an intellectual discipline, it is also aprofession. When we speak of a profession, we refer mainly to suchthemes as the uses or applications of a body of knowledge.Sociologist plays a rich and varied role in today’s society. Theyserve in a variety of capacities such, as consultant, teacher, policymaker, researcher, administrator, clinical counselor, social critic,interviewer, journalist, probation and parole worker, careercounselor, social worker, recreation worker, programme evaluator,urban planner, marketing administration co-coordinator andpersonal manager etc. they work in areas as broad and diverse asthe discipline they have chosen.

Knowledge of sociology can be used in the following areas ofsocial life:

1. Teaching

2. Social research

3. Social work

4. Professions-medicine, law, engineering, business etc.

5. Industry

6. Rural and Urban planning

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7. Public administration- civil services

8. Policy making

9. business consulting

10. Politics

11. Architecture

12. Child welfare and Health welfare

13. Gerontology (study of old age people)

14. Computer industry

15. Military intelligence and military

16. Entrepreneurship

17. International relations

18. Criminal justice

19. City management

20. New emerging careers: (a) action programme, and (b)development

1.5.2. Specialization within sociology

Aging/ Social Gerontology

Biosociology

Collective Behavior/ Social Movements

Community/ Rural Society

Comparative Sociology/ Macro sociology

Criminal Justice/ Corrections

Criminology/ Delinquency

Cultural Sociology

Demography

Development/ Modernization/ Social Change

Deviant Behavior/ Social disorganization

Economy and Society

Education

Environmental Sociology

History of Sociology/ Social thought

Human ecology

Industrial Sociology

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International Development/ Third World

Law and Society

Leisure/ Sports/ Recreation

Marriage and the Family

Mass Communication/ Public Opinion

Mathematical Sociology

Medical Sociology

Methodology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Micro computing/ Computer applications

Military Sociology

Occupations/ Professions

Political Sociology

Race/ Ethnic/ Minority Relations

Religion

Sex and Gender

Small Groups

Social Control

Social Networks

Social Organization/ Formal/ Complex

Social Psychology

Socialization

Sociological Practice/ Social Policy

Sociology of Art/ Literature

Sociology if Knowledge/ Science

Sociology of Language/ social Linguistics

Sociology of Markets

Sociology of Mental Health

Sociology of Work

Stratification/ Mobility

Urban Sociology

Visual Sociology

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Check Your Progress

1. Discuss in detail the diverse specializations available insociology directing one to opt for various careers in sociology

Summary:

The term sociological imagination was developed byC.Wright Mills to go beyond personal experience and to rely on anunusual type of creative thinking.The sociological imaginationrequire usabove all, to think ourselves away from the familiarroutines of our daily life in order to look at them a new.

Today sociology has occupied very important position due toits significance and utility.Study of sociology is very important forIndia .It is bosoz we are a developing society and our rulers in thepast not onlytried to solve our problem but also allowed it to getdeep rooted.

Sociology makes us aware of cultural differences,help us inassessing the effect of policiesand contribute to once selfenlightenment.There are large number of specialization and careeropporunitias available in sociology.

Questions:

Examine in detail how sociological outlook and sociologicalimaginationhelps one to develop a better understanding ofsociety and social problem.

Highlight the significance of sociology in general and itsimportance in Indian society in particular.

Write a detail note on significance and practical utility ofsociology.

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Reference and readings:

Abraham Francis (2010); Contemporary Sociology: AnIntroduction to Concepts and Theories. New Delhi: OxfordUniversity press.

Giddens, Anthony (2001); Sociology; 4th edition; Polity Press. Ferrante Joan (2006); Sociology-A Global Perspective; 6th

edition; Thomson Wadsworth; USA.

Kendall Diana (2007); Sociology in Our Times; The Essentials.6th edition; Thomson Wadsworth; USA.

Schaeffer and Lamm (1988); Sociology; 6th edition; McGraw Hill

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3

CULTURE

MEANING, FUNCTIONS,CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES

Unit Structure

3.0 Objectives

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Understanding culture

3.3 Meaning and definitions of culture

3.4 Functions of culture

3.5 Characteristics of culture

3.6 Types of culture

3.7 Subculture

3.8 Counter culture

3.9 Summary

3.10 Suggested readings

3.11 Questions

3.0 OBJECTIVES

To enhance student’s understanding of the concept of culture

To acquaint them with the various functions and characteristicsof culture

To highlight the types of culture

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Culture is one of the most important concepts in socialsciences. The study of human society immediately and necessarilyleads us to the study of its culture. The study of society or anyaspect of it becomes incomplete without a proper understanding ofthe culture of that society culture and society go together. They areinseparable. It is important to distinguish between the relatedconcepts of culture and society. Sometimes the concepts are used

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synonymously to mean all learned habits the total ways of life of asocial group, or a group’s social heritage.

In sociological usage, culture specifically refers to socialstructure and ideas that give meaning to human social structure,while society refers to social structure some what apart fromunderlying values and ideas. The study of the “society” or socialstructure, of a group, on the other hand, is primarily concerned withthe patterns of organization and interaction built upon that culturalbackground. Although culture and society are closely relatedconcepts that can never be wholly separated.

3.2 UNDERSTANDING CULTURE

Culture is a unique possession of man. Every man is borninto a society is the same as saying that “every man is born into aculture. Every man can be regarded as a representative of thisculture. Culture is the unique quality of man which separates himfrom the lower animals. As used by sociologist to and culturalanthropologists, culture has a different meaning.

To a sociologist, a culture is a system of ideas, values,beliefs, knowledge, norm, customs and technology shared byalmost everyone in a particular society.

Culture can be said to include all the human phenomena in asociety. Culture includes all learned behaviour. Culture is a veryboard term that includes in its self all our walks of life, our modes ofbehaviour, our philosophers and ethics, our morals and manners,our customs and tradition, our religious, political, economic andother types of activities.

3.3 MEANING AND DEFINITIONS OF CULTURE

All the human societies have complex ways of life that differgreatly from one to another. These ways have come to be knownas culture in 1871. Edward Tylor gave us the first definition of thisconcept. Culture as defined by Edward refer “is that complex wholewhich includes knowledge belief, art, law, morals custom and othercapabilities and habit acquired by man as a member of society”.

Robert Bierstadt Simplified Tylor’s definition by stating“culture is the complex whole that consists of all the ways we thinkand do and everything we have as member of society. “

In the word of MacIver and Page, culture is “the realm ofstyles of values of emotional attachments of intellectual adventures”

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B. Malinowski has defined culture as the cumulative creationof man”. He also regarded culture as a handiwork of man and themedium, through which he achieves his ends.

Culture is often referred as a “Sum total of behaviour traitswhich a person, comes to acquire through instruction and learning.It shapes an individuals reaction to external environment it providesthe individual a structure of socially approved ideas and beliefs,norms and values.

Check Your Progress

1. Explain the relationship between culture and society2. Define culture

3.4 FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE

Man is not only a social animal but also a cultural beingMan’s social life has been made possible because of culture.Culture is something that has elevated him from the level of animalto other superior animal. Man can not survive without culture. Itrepresents the entire achievements of mankind. Culture has beenfulfilling a number of functions among which the following may benoted.

1. Culture defines situationCulture defines social situation for us. It not only defines but

also conditions and determines what we eat, and drink what wewear, where to laugh, weep sleep to make friends with, what workwe do, what to worship etc.

2. Culture is the treasury of knowledgeCulture provides knowledge which is important for the

physical, social and intellectual existence of man. Birds andanimals behave instinctively with the help of instincts they try toadapt themselves with the environment. But man has greaterintelligence and learning capacity with the help of these he hasbeen able to adapt himself with the environment or modify it to suit

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his convenience. Culture has made such an adaptation andmodification possible and easier by providing man the necessaryskills and knowledge. Culture preserves knowledge and helps itstransmission from generation to generation through its element thatis language. Language helps not only the transmission ofknowledge but also its preservation, accumulation and diffusion. Onthe contrary, animals do not have this advantage, because, culturedoes not exist at sub-human level.

3. Culture provides behavior patternsCulture directs and confines the behavior of an individual.

Culture assigns goals and provides means for achieving them. Itrewards his noble walk and punishes the immoral ones. It assignshim status and roles. We see, dream, aspire, work, strive, enjoy,according to the cultural expectation. Culture not only controls butalso liberates human, energy and activities. Man, indeed, followshis culture in every path of his life.

4. Culture defines attitudes, values and goalsAttitudes refer to the tendency to feel and act in certain

ways, values are the measure of goodness or desirability. Goalsrefer to the attainment which our values define as worthy. It is theculture which conditions our attitudes towards various issues suchas religion, morality, science, family planning, prostitution, and soon. Our values concerning private property, fundamental rightsrepresentative governments etc. are influenced by our culture. Ourgoals of winning the target, understanding others, attainingsalvation being respectful and obedient to elders and teachersbeing patriotic, loyal etc. are set forth by our culture. We are beingsocialized on these models.

5. Culture models personalityCulture exercises a great influence on the development of

personality. No child can develop human qualities in the absence ofa cultural environment. Culture prepares man for group life andprovides him the design of living. It is culture that providesopportunities for the development of personality and sets limits onits growth. As Ruth Benedict has pointed out, every culture willproduce its, special type or types of personality. This fact has beenstressed by her in her “Patterns of Culture” an analysis of theculture of three primitive societies. Yet another anthropologist byname Margaret Mead has stated that a culture shapes thecharacter and behaviors of individual living in it…. This fact she hasestablished in her “Sex and Temperament in Three PrimitiveSocieties- A study of New Guinea tribal life.

6. Culture decides our careerWhat career, we are likely to pursue is largely decided by

our culture. Whether we should become a politician, a social worker

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a doctor, an engineer, a solider, a farmer, a professor, anindustrialist, a religious leader and so on is decided by our culture.Culture sets limitations on our choice to select different careers.Individuals may develop, modify or oppose the trends of theirculture but they always live within its framework. Only a few canfind outlet in the culture.

We can conclude that the individual is exposed to andmolded by the culture of the group into which he is born. But theculture provides not only for “universals” but also for “alternatives”.There is not only conformity in cultural learning but also variations.Every individual is unique in any culture. The uniqueness may bebased on individual differences in ability, aptitude and learning. Theimpact of culture on the individual is not always identical in everycase. Every individual is soon on later exposed to influences whichare not completely determined by culture. Traveling, books, radio,cinema, television, newspaper, exposes an individual to manyinfluences outside the culture. Various biological and social factorsbring about uniqueness of the individuals in any culture.

Check Your Progress

1. State the importance of culture in moulding personality of anindividual

2. What are the various functions of culture?

3.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

Most definitions of culture emphasizes certain features.Namely, culture is shared, it is acquired not in born, the elementsmake up a complex whole, and it is transmitted from onegeneration to the next. Culture, can be said to be concept as all thathuman beings learn to do, to use, to produce, to know and to theygrow to maturity and live out their lives in the social groups towhere they belong. Culture is basically a blueprint for living in aparticular society.

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It is necessary for us to know the main features of culture:

1. Culture is learnt

Culture is not inherited biologically, but learnt socially byman. It is not an inborn tendency. There is no cultural instinct assuch culture is often “Learned ways of behavior”. Unlearnedbehavior such as closing the eyes while sleeping, the eye blinkingreflex and so on, are purely physiological and not cultural. Shakinghands or saying “namaskar” or “thanks” on the other hand, arecultural. Similarly, wearing clothes, combing the hair, wearingornaments, drinking from a glass, eating from a plate, etc. are allways of behavior learnt by man culturally.

2. Culture is social

Culture does not exist in isolation. Neither is it an individualphenomenon. It is a product of society. It originates and developsthrough social interactions. It is shared by the members of society.No man can acquire culture without association with other humanbeings. Man becomes man only among men. It is the culture whichhelps man to develop human qualities in a human environment.Deprivation of company or association of other individuals to anindividual is nothing but deprivation of human qualities.

3. Culture is shared

Culture in the sociological sense, is something shared. It isnot something that an individual alone can possess. For example,customs, traditions, beliefs, ideas, values, morals etc. are all sharedby people of a group or society. The inventions of Albert Einstein,the literary works of Kalidasa, the philosophical work etc, are allshared by a large number of people. As Robert Bierstedt said“Culture is something adopted, used, believed, practiced orpossessed by more than one person. It depends upon group life forits existence.”

4. Culture is transmissive

Culture is capable of being transmitted from one generationto the other. Parents pass on culture traits to their children, andthey in turn to their children, and so on. Culture is transmitted notthrough genes but by means of language. Language is the mainvehicle of culture. Language in its different forms like reading,writing, and speaking makes it possible for the present generationto understand the achievements of earlier generations. Butlanguage itself is a part a culture. Once language is acquired,transmition of culture may take place by imitation as well as byinstruction.

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5. Culture is continuous and cumulative

Culture exists as a continuous process. In its historical,growth it tends to become cumulative. Culture is a “growing whole”which includes in itself, the achievements of the past and thepresent and makes provision for the future achievements ofmankind “culture may thus be conceived of as a kind a streamflowing down through the centuries from one generation toanother”. Hence some sociologists like Linton called culture “thesocial heritage” of man. As Robert Bierstedt writes, culture is thememory of the man race”. It becomes difficult for us to imaginewhat society would be like without this accumulation of culture,what our lives would be without it.

6. Culture is consistent and integrated

Culture in its development has revealed a tendency to beconsistent. At the same time different parts of culture areinterconnected. For example, the value system of society is closelyconnected with its other aspects such as morality, religion,customs, traditions, beliefs, and so on.

7. Culture is dynamic and adaptive

Though culture is relatively stable it is not altogether static. Itis subjected to slow but constant changes. Change and growth arelatent in culture. There have been many changes and growth fromthe vedic times to the present times. Culture is therefore dynamic.

Culture is responsive to the changing conditions of thephysical world. It is adaptive. It also intervenes in the naturalenvironment and helps man in his process of adjustment. Cultureassists us to survive and adapt to the changes.

8. Culture is gratifying

Culture provides proper opportunities and prescribes meansfor the satisfaction of our needs and desires. These needs may bebiological or social in nature. Our need for food, shelter, andclothing on the one hand and our desire for status, name, fame,money etc. are all for example, fulfilled according to the culturalways. Culture determines and guides the varied activities of man. Infact, culture is defined as the process through which human beingssatisfy their wants.

9. Culture varies from society to society

Every society has a culture of its own. It differs from societyto society. Culture of every society is unique to itself. Cultures arenot uniform. Culture elements such as customs, traditions, morals,

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ideas, values, ideologies etc, are not uniform everywhere. Ways ofeating speaking, greeting, dressing, entertaining living etc, ofdifferent societies differ significantly. Culture varies from time totime also. No culture ever remains constant.

10. Culture is super organic and ideational

Culture is sometimes called “the super organic”. By “superorganic” Herbert Spencer meant that culture is neither organic norinorganic in but above there two. The term implies the socialmeaning of physical objects and physiological acts. The socialmeaning may be independent of physiological and physicalproperties and characteristics. For example the social meaning of anational flag is not just “a piece of coloured cloth”. The flagrepresents a nation. Similarly priest’s, prisoner, professors andprofessional players, engineers and doctors, farmers and soldiers,and other are not just biological beings. They are viewed in theirsociety differently. Their social status and role can be understoodonly through culture.

Further, every society considers its culture as an ideal. It isregarded as an end in itself. It is intrinsically valuable. The peopleare also aware of their culture as an ideal one. They are proud oftheir cultural heritage.

Check Your Progress

1. Highlight the different characteristics of culture which evolvefrom the definition

2. Explain in detail the various characteristics of culture

3. Culture is super organic elaborate on the concept

3.6 TYPES OF CULTURE

The use of the phrase “a culture” may imply that eachsociety has a single culture that is shared and accepted equally byevery member. In reality this is not the case. What is called asociety’s culture is often only a common denominator of diverse

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culture elements found within a society. In order to function, everysocial group must have a culture of its own-its own goals, norms,values, and ways of doing things. As Thomas Lasswell (1965)pointed out such group culture is not just a “partial or miniature”culture. It is a full blown, complete culture in its own right. Everyfamily, community, ethnic group and society has its own culture.Hence every individual participates in number of different cultures.in the course of a day. Meeting social expectation of variouscultures is often a source of considerable stress for individuals incomplex, heterogeneous societies like ours. Many college studentsfor example, find that the culture of the campus varies significantlyfrom the culture of their family or neighborhood. At home they maybe criticized for their clothing, their anti establishments ideas, andfor spending too little time with the family. On the campus they maythe pressured to open up and experiment a little or to reject oldfashioned values.

3.7 SUB CULTURE

When a group of people within a society have a style ofliving that includes features of dominant culture but also certaincultural elements not found in other groups their group culture iscalled sub culture. A sub culture may develop around occupationssuch as those in the medical or military fields. Sub culture mayreflect a social and ethnic difference, as the sub culture of blackAmericans.

Certain groups, in every modern society, share certaincomplexes which are not characteristic of all the other groups in thesociety. Immigrant groups, for example bring along with them a fewculture complexes of their native country and adopt a few from thehost country. The mixture of two cultures thus emerging representsa “sub culture”. A dynamic and socially diversified society of todayconsists of such “sub culture” as the part of main cultural and socialsystem. The individuals mainly live and function within the subcultures.

Every complex society is made up of many sub culture.Individual members often function in more than one, and they passthrough different sub culture as they progress through the stages oflife cycle. Sub cultural traits are often passed outside the groupfrom one sub cultural to another and into the cultural mainstream.

Sociologist use the term sub culture to refer to the distinctivelifestyles, values, norms and belief’s of certain segments of thepopulation within a society. The concept of sub culture originates instudies of juvenile delinquency and criminality. Howeversociologists increasingly use sub culture to refer to the culture of

37

discrete population segments within a society. The term is primarilyapplied to the culture of ethnic groups as well as to social classes.

Several groups have been studied at one time or another bysociologists as examples of sub cultures. These can be classifiedroughly as follows

1. Ethnic sub cultures

Many immigrant groups have maintained their groupidentities and sustained their traditions while at the same timeadjusting to the demands of the wider society. Example America’snewest immigrants, Korea, India, Japan, Taiwan, have maintainedtheir values by living together in tight knit communities in New York,Los Angeles and other large cities while at the same timeencouraging their children to achieve success by American terms.

2. Occupational sub culture

Certain occupation seems to involve people in a distinctive.lifestyle even beyond their work. Construction workers, police,entertainers, and many other occupational groups involve people indistinctive sub cultures. New York’s Wall Street is not only thefinancial capital of the world; it is identified with certain values suchas materialism or power.

3. Religious sub culture

Certain religious groups though continuing to participate in thewider society nevertheless practice lifestyle that set them apart.These include Christian groups, Muslim, Jews and may religiousgroups. Sometimes the lifestyle may separate the group from theculture as the whole as well as the sub culture of its immediatecommunity.

4. Political sub culture

Small marginal political groups may so involve theirmembers in such a way that their entire way of life is an expressionof their political conviction. Often these are so called left-wing andright-wing groups that reject much of what they see in Americansociety, but remain engaged in society through their constantefforts to change it to their liking .

5. Geographical sub culture

Large societies often show regional variation in culture. TheUnited States has several geographical areas known for theirdistinctive sub culture. For eg, the south is known for its leisurely

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approach to life its broad dialect and its hospitality California isknown for its trendy and ultra relaxed or laid back life style andNew York stands as much for an anxious elitist ,arts and literatureoriented sub culture as for a city.

6. Social class sub culture

Although social classes cut horizontally across geographical,ethnic and other subdivisions of society to some degree it ispossible to discern cultural differences among the classes.Sociologists have documented those linguistic styles, family andhousehold forms and values and norms applied to child rearing arepatterned in terms of social class sub cultures.

7. Deviant sub culture

As we mentioned earlier sociologist first began to study subcultures as a way of explaining Juvenile delinquency andcriminality. This interest expanded to include the study of a widevariety of groups that are marginal to society in one way or anotherand whose life style clash with that of the wider society in importantways. Some of the deviant sub cultural groups studied bysociologists include prostitutes, pick pockets, drug users andvariety of criminal groups.

Check Your Progress

1. Define sub culture2. Write a note on different types of sub culture

3.8 COUNTER CULTURE

A sub culture that is so different from the dominant culture asto sharply challenge it is Known as counter culture. Counter cultureare typically found among the young. The hippie culture of the late1960s for example strongly rejected traditional life styles andcreated a set of norms that directly opposed majority beliefs aboutwork, patriotism and material possessions.

Counter culture is generally found among the youngbecause they do not respect the existing cultural norms. Youngpeople can adjust to counter culture but old people cannot. Counter

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culture arises out of the need of some individuals to find a groupsupport for their failure to follow the general or dominant patterns.For example unemployed youths take to antisocial activities byforming a group of their own. The growth of counter culture reflectsthe quality of frustration within society

Not all countercultures are nonviolent. In 1995, the federalbuilding in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was blown up, killing 168people and injuring many others. That horrific crime brought to lightthe existence of another counterculture in the United States: ruralmilitians. While such groups go by several names, their memberstend to be people who despise the U.S. government for what theysee as its interference in the lives of citizens.

Counterculture and Politics

In many parts of the world, ethnic, political, or religious groupswithin larger nations struggle for independence or dominance. Forgenerations, the Basque separatist group ETA (Freedom for theBasque Homeland) in northern Spain has violently pursued the goalof independence for the Basque regions. In Northern Ireland, whichis governed by Great Britian, Sinn Fein is a violent politicalorganization whose stated goal is the end of British rule in Ireland.ETA and Sinn Fein are examples of countercultures

Check Your Progress

1. With the help of examples explain counter culture

3.9 SUMMARY

All human societies have complex ways of life that differgreatly from one to the other. Each society has its own unique blueprint for living, or culture. Culture consists of all that human beingslearn to do, to use, to produce, to know, and to believe as theygrow to maturity and live out their lives in the social groups to whichthey belong.

Human are remarkably unspecialized, culture allows us toadapt quickly and flexibly to the challenges of our environment.Sociologists view culture as having three major components,material culture, non material culture and language.

Language and the production of tools are central elements ofculture. Evidence exists that animals engage, or can be taught to

40

engage, in both of these activities. Does this mean that they haveculture? Scientists disagree about how to interpret the evidence.With-out question, however it can be said that human have refinedculture to a far greater degree than other animals & are far moredependent on it for their existence.

Every social group has its own complete culture.Sociologists use the term sub culture to refer to the distinctivelifestyles, values, norms & beliefs associated with certain segmentsof the population within a society. Types of subcultures includeethnic, occupational, religious, political, geographical, social class,and deviant subcultures.

People in all societies must confront and resolve certaincommon, basic problems. Cultural universals are certain models orpatterns that have developed in all cultures to resolve thoseproblems. Among them are the division of labour, the incest taboo,marriage, family organization, rites of passage, & ideology thoughthe forms are universal, the content is unique to each culture.

By dividing the responsibility for completing necessary tasksamong their members, societies create a division of labor. Everyculture has established rites of passage, or standardized ritualsmarking major life transitions. Ideologies or strongly held beliefs &values, are the cement of social structure in that they help a groupmaintain its identity as a social unit.

Due to a lack of instinctual or biological programming,humans have a great deal of flexibility and choice in their activities.Individual freedom of action is limited, however, by the existingculture. Moreover, social pressures to act, think, and feel in sociallyapproved ways inevitably generates individual dissatisfaction.There is thus a tension between the individual and society.

3.10 SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Schaeffer and Lamm [1998] ,Sociology (6th Edition). McGrawHill

2. Macionis John [2005] ,Sociology (10th Edition) . Prentice Hall

3. Abraham Francis M [2010],Contemporary Sociology : AnIntroduction to Concepts and Theories. New Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press

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3.11 QUESTIONS

1. Define culture, write the function of culture?

2. Write a detailed note on the characteristic of culture?

3. Define Sub culture and highlight the different types of subculture.

4. Distinguish between subculture and counter culture.

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4

CULTURE EDHNOCENTRISM, CULTURALRELATIVISM, XENOCENTRISM,COMPONENTS OF CULTURE.

Unit Structure

4.0 Objectives. .

4.1 Cultural Universals and Cultural Variability

4.2 Ethnocentrism

4.3 Cultural Relativism.

4.4 Xenocentrism.

4.5 Cultural Change.

4.6 Components of Culture.

4.7 Knowledge.

4.8 Normative.

4.9 Material Culture and Non Material Culture

4.10 Towards and Global Culture.

4.11 Summary.

4.12 Suggested reading.

4.13 Questions.

4.0 OBJECTIVES

To make students acquaint with various aspects of culture.

To highlight the components of culture.

4.1 CULTURAL UNIVERSALS AND CULTURALVARIABILITY

Culture is an abstraction, most of its elements cannot beseen or touched, we can only describe what people do and theexplanations they give for their conduct. this chapter is entitled “TheCultural Context” to convey the idea that culture provides ablueprint or framework for social arrangements that regulate dailylife and that meet personal and collective needs.

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Cultural Universals and Cultural Variability:

Because every culture must deal with human limitations andpossibilities, and because every group must solve the sameproblems of survival, certain types of arrangements are found inevery culture. These are the Cultural Universals. The earliest prehumans had to find solutions to immediate problems of bothpersonal and collective survival. Securing food, maintaining order,producing and training new members, and developing group unity .When organized into patterned regularities of behavior thesenecessary elements of individual and group survival are calledinstitutional spheres, the society’s economic system, its politicalstructure, its family system, its educational processes, and its beliefsystem.

But the content, the specific details of the institutionalspheres, and the ways in which these traits are linked together willbe different from one society to another, shaped by geography andhistory. These process accounts for Cultural Variability. Thevarieties of customs. beliefs and artifacts that human have devisedto meet universal needs. For example, although the need fororderly reproduction has led to rules regulating courtship andmarriage in all societies, these can range from a communalceremony among individuals who may never live together toarranged marriages.

4.2 ETHNOCENTRISM

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view ones own culture asthe most superior. Here we apply our own cultural values to judgethe behavior and beliefs of people of other culture. Ethnic groupshave certain beliefs. values, habit, customs, norms and a commonback-ground. They consider themselves different from others andspecial because they have different cultural features like theirlanguage, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation,kinship, race and a common descent etc. All this gives them asense of solidarity. Ethnicity is identifying with and feeling groupsbecause of their own affiliation. Ethnic diversity may leads topositive group interaction or co-existence or conflict. The positivegroup interaction will result in a pluralistic society but the conflict willlead to ethnocentrism. Modern society is multicultural. Root ofethnocentrism is ethnic conflict is prejudice and discrimination.Prejudice is devaluing, looking down at, a group for its values andattributes.

Ethnocentrism is a cultural attitude that ones own culture isthe best. We evaluate other culture on the basis of our own cultural

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perspective. It is the tendency to consider our cultural pattern asnormal and therefore superior to all other cultural. It is a valuejudgment about oneself and others. By devaluing others we denythem equal opportunities in life. This prejudicial attitude was calledby Sumner as ethnocentrism. It is taking for granted like superiorityof one own culture. It is a view of things in which ones own cultureis at the centre of everything and all others are scaled withreference to it. Not only different community groups areethnocentric but even within a community there can bediscrimination as high and low caste, educated and illiterate. Thereare no human groups or even individuals who are not ethnocentricat least to some extent. Ethnocentrism provides for group identity,unity and loyalty. For example it reinforces the sprit of nationalismand patriotism.

When looking at other cultures, we tend to evaluate theircustoms in the light of our own beliefs and values. Members of allsocieties assume that their way of life is the best and only correctway. Often, the very name of the group translates into “the people”,implying that those who do not share the culture are not people, but“them” outsiders who are often identified by words that consciouslydehumanize.

The belief that ones own culture is the only true and goodway, and the tendency is called Ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrismserves important functions for individuals and collectivities.Certainty about the rightness of one’s culture reinforces thetendency to conform and to defend it.

People often make judgments about other cultures accordingto the customs and values of their own, a practice sociologist’s callethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism can lead to prejudice anddiscrimination and often and results in the repression of dominationof one group by another. Immigrants, for instance, often encounterhostility when their manners, dress eating habits, or religious beliefsdiffer markedly from those of their new neighbors. Because of thishostility and because of their own ethnocentrism, immigrants oftenestablish their own communities in their adopted country.

To avoid ethnocentrism in their own research, sociologistsare guided by the concept of cultural relativism, the recognition thatsocial group and cultures must be studied and understood on theirown terms before valid comparisons can be made, culturalrelativism frequently is taken to mean that social scientists nevershould judge the relative merits of any group or culture. This is notthe case. Cultural relativism is an approach to doing objectivecross-cultural research. It dose not require researchers to abdicatetheir personal standards. In fact, good social scientists will take thetrouble to spell out exactly what their standards are so that bothresearchers and reader will be alert to possible bias in their studies.

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The problem of judging and relating to other cultures is not aproblem for social scientists alone. Every child grows up to believethat his own culture is good and right. This outlook often leads tothe conclusion that people who do things differently are bad orwrong, consequently, when member of one culture are exposed toanother, unfamiliar culture, they may become hostile, suspicious orcritical.

Ethnocentrism can serve a valuable function is societies, ifthe members of a society believe that the norms and values of theirculture are right and goods, they will be more likely to subscribe tothem. But ethnocentrism also poses a danger in that it can lead tosocial isolation, inhibiting cultural exchanges that promote growthand development. The successful society must therefore havemechanisms for overcoming excessive ethnocentrism andfacilitating cultural exchange.

Some primitive societies have made rituals of traderelationships with other groups to procure needed items for theireconomy and foster cultural exchange. An example of such atradition is the once a year trip across the Sahara desertundertaken by men of the Tuareg tribe to buy salt. They go in agreat camel caravan walking hundreds of miles each year, stoppingat every oasis, along their route. The sale of the salt on their returnfurnishes them with enough money or goods to live on until the nextyear’s trip. Obviously, there is an economic motive involved in thistradition but there is also a valuable cultural exchange carried onwith all the tribes encountered during the trip. This exchange haskept the Tuareg, who live in externs geographic isolation in thedesert, in touch with technological progress and new ideas, andthey have therefore been able to survive in the rapidly changingmodern world.

In the world today ethnocentrism has become a seriouspolitical problem because nations are very interdependent, peoplefrom many societies and cultures must interact with one another,and world survival may depend on a greater appreciation of thepractices of others. Modern societies rely on formal education tocombat ethnocentrism and considerable proportion of every child’seducation is spent in the study of other cultures. But such educationis not always effective or sufficient.

4.3 CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Cultural Relativism is opposite of ethnocentrism. This isunder standing other cultures not from ones own cultural standardbut in the context of that culture only. This is trying to understandother cultures rather than criticizing them as ‘Strange’ less civilized

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etc. Cultural relativism is value neutral and objective. Culturalrelativism stresses the point that the variety in culture is due todifferent norms and values of a society. Cultural relativismemphasizes that there is no cultural superiority or inferiority but theyare relative to their context, for example some societies do notapprove pre marital sex experience where as some encourage it. Inan African tribe a girl with a new child, referred as ‘low and the calf’has a better chance of getting married than others because she hasproved her bearing capacity. There are some societies who acceptpre marital sex relations only conditionally, some disapprove of itmildly and some forbid it totally. Killing even an enemy is crime inour society but in some societies it is justified, cultural values of allsocieties are not same but different.

To avoid ethnocentrism in their own research, sociologistsare guided by the concept of Cultural Relativism, the recognitionthat social groups and cultures must be studied and understood ontheir own terms before valid comparisons can be made. CulturalRelativism frequently is taken to mean that social scientists nevershould judge the relative merits of any group or culture. This is notthe case cultural relativism is an approach to doing objective cross-cultural research. It does not require researchers to, abdicate theirpersonal standards. In fact, good social scientists will take thetrouble to spell out exactly what their standards are so that bothresearchers & readers will be alert to possible bias in their studies,cultural relativism requires that behaviors and customs be viewedand analyzed within the context in which they occur.

The social scientist rise above ethnocentrism and try toobserve all cultures objectively. Aspects of any culture can beunderstood only in terms of the meaning attached to them in thatsociety. This attempt to see the world through the lens of anotherculture is called cultural relativism. Value judgments are replacedby an appreciation of the content of others cultures. The socialscientist does not ask if a culture trait is good or bad according tosome absolute yardstick, but rather, why does this trait exist, how isit maintained, and what purposes does it serve for members of thatsociety? The standard of evaluation is whether or not the culturepattern enhances the well-being of individuals and the survival ofthe collectivity.

The basic assumption of the cultural relativity model is thateach society’s solutions to the task of survival are as valid as anyother’s however unappealing such custom may seem to someonefrom another society. Above all, we must avoid the tendency tothink of people in simple societies as less evolved or less intelligentthan members of modern societies.

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Every social group has its own specific culture, its own wayof seeing, doing, and making things, its own tradition. Somecultures are quite similar to one another, others are very different.When individuals travel abroad to countries with cultures that arevery different form their own, the experience can be quite upsetting.Meals are scheduled at different time of day, “Strange” or even“repulsive” foods are eaten, and the traveler never quite knowswhat to expect from others or what others in turn may expect. Localcustom may seem charming or brutal. Sometime travelers areunable to adjust easily to a foreign culture, they may becomeanxious, lose their appetites, or even feel sick. Sociologists use theterm Culture Shock to describe the difficulty people have adjustingto a new culture that differs markedly from their own.

Culture shock can also be experienced, within a person’sown society. Example the army recruits having to adapt to a wholenew set of behaviors, rules and expectations in basic training a newcultural setting.

Among many anthropologists who use term culture to refernot only to values and ideas but also to social structure. Thesimplest unit or element of culture is called a culture trait.American culture traits includes the practices of attending church,using a fork, wearing a jacket and tie, and shaking hands, togetherwith the belief in efficiency, the two-party political system, andindividualism. A countless number of such culture traits exist inevery culture but most are contained within a small number ofculture complexes clusters of interrelated culture traits thatfunction as distinct and separable units in a society. Someexamples of culture complexes in the United States are theautomobile complex, Christmas, football. Southern Baptists and thenational political conventions. Cultural units can have bothfunctional and day functional characteristics.

Functionalism points up the fact that a culture is not simply arandom collection of traits but an intricate system in which thedifferent parts must fit together for proper functioning .Family life,economic procedures, laws, defense measures, and the variousother social activities or culture complexes are closely intermeshedwith one another, a change in one of these activities of complexesmay effect changes in each of the others. This fitting together ofcultural units into a cohesive whole is known as CulturalIntegration.

Ignorance about the cultural integration of societies hascreated many problems in dealing with Third World Nations. Forexample, in nation where people raise large herds of unhealthycattle, programs introducing selective breeding to upgrade thequality of livestock have sometimes field to consider that anindividual’s status may be determined by the size of his herd, not its

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quality. The introduction of the new breeding methods may threatencustoms and values woven into the fabric of the culture, and theday functional consequences could be serious.

Functionalism is merely a theoretical orientation foranalyzing a culture and is not an easy one to carry out in practice. Itrequires extensive knowledge of the culture inquestion andpainstaking examinations of the consequences of effects that oneunit of culture has on other units or on the culture as a whole.

Cultural diversity can be easily overemphasized. Thecomparison of cultures indicates that all cultures share fundamentalsimilarities in social structure and cultural meanings. Thesesimilarities arise because every human group finds itself facingcommon problems and living within universal limitations.

All human beings are alike biologically, which may accountfor many of the cultural universals that are found. For example, weall must eat and find shelter from the hostile elements. We all musttake care of young and helpless children, deal with the problem ofaging ill parents, and face ultimate death.

Another source of cultural universals is the necessaryprerequisites of social living. In order to function, a society mustfulfill certain requirements. It must replace personnel when they die,leave, or become incapacitated, it must teach new members toparticipate usefully, it must produce and distribute goods andservices, it must preserve order, and it must maintain a sense ofpurpose. No society, if it is to survive, is exempt from theserequirements.

A third source of cultural universals is the limitation andpossibilities of the natural environment. There are only a limitednumber of edible and nutritious plants and limited methods oftravel. Only certain objects make suitable weapons for hunting andself-defense. Every culture has turned to fire to provide a source ofheat and also light at night. Nearly every society has created a formof bread. No group uses a square wheel, because it does not work.

4.4 XENOCENTRISM

Xenocentrism is the opposite of ethnocentrism which meansa group of people prefers the ideas .“Xenocentrism” is the tendencyto assume that aspects of other culture are superior to one’s own.Xenocentrism is the preference for the products, styles or ideas ofsomeone else’s culture rather than one’s own. The 18th centuryprimitivism movement in European art and philosophy and itsconcept of the “Noble savage is an example of xenocentrism.

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Xenocentrism results from an attempt on the part of an individual tocorrect his or her own ethnocentrism.

Xenocentrism is a word which means “preference for aforeign culture. It is exact opposite of ethnocentrism. It is a beliefthat our own products styles or ideas are inferior to the ideas, stylesof the other.

4.5 CULTURAL CHANGE

Culture is not a static system, elements of culture changefrom time to time. Cultures have evolved over thousands of years.Societies have abandoned many of the belief systems and culturalpractices which are not consistent with scientific evidence today.Empirical evidence provided by scientific investigation hasexploded many myths and under mind numerous superstitiousbelief system. Think of how our cooking and eating habits have.Changed, and think of the numerous changes in the caste and jointfamily system over the years, changes in the field of education andpolitics, and the transformation in transportation andcommunication system.

Diffusion is the process by which elements of culture spreadfrom one society to another. Developments in transportation andcommunication have brought the world closer together. Fast food,coca cola, blue jeans, and rock music have spread to all corners ofthe earth. Democracy, freedom, equality and human rights are nowgenerally accepted values. Specialists is mass communicationhave written extensively on the diffusion of innovations anddemonstrated how mass media play on important role in the spreadof ideas and technology. Think of how western music dance,fashions, and food habits have made an impact on the campussubculture.

Culture lag is a concept introduced by William Ogburn toexplain how various elements of culture change at a different paceand with what consequences. Usually the elements of culturerelated to technology change faster rate than non-materialelements as a result of new invention. But society is considered tobe system in equilibrium with interrelated parts. Therefore, whensome parts of society change more rapidly than others, suchchanges cause disruption in the social system. It takes time for allrelated parts of society to change and adapt to the new situation.This delay, is known as cultural lag, affects every society. When thebicycles first came out with leather seats many Hindus refused toride them because of the belief leather pollutes. Soon, the seat wascovered with plastic or fabric. Birth control technologies are readilyavailable but certain religious and cultural beliefs resist their

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adoption. In some parts of India people still refuse vaccinationsagainst polio and measles. In many cities people who use to pullmanual rickshaws have changed over to auto rickshaws. Changesin technology bring about changes in occupation and lifestyles.

Check Your Progress

1. Define ethnocentrism2. Differentiate between cultural relativism and ethnocentrism3. Cultural universal is a important prerequisite elaborate on this4. What is xenocentrism

4.6 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

Culture is often described as the blueprint for living of agroup (or society) whose members share a given language andterritory, and who recognize their shared identity. Culture consistsof(1) solution to the problem of survival(2) ideal and values that shape of conduct and(3) tools, weapons and other human made objects (artifacts, ormaterial sculpture.)

We become functioning members of a society as we learnthe content of its culture. Another way of looking at culture is toemphasize the way in which it shapes how we perceive the worldand interpret out experience.

Any culture may be divided, for purposes of study andanalysis, into three main components.

4.7 KNOWLEDGE

The cognitive component of culture consists of definition ofwhat exists, or the reality of the world. Knowledge of one part ofcognitive culture, refers to ideas and information that can be shownto have empirical, that is objective and factual support. The mosthighly refined knowledge comes from the physical sciences.

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Knowledge that is less reliable less capable of empiricaldemonstration, is called beliefs -ideas or theories about the natureof the physical and social world. Beliefs also includes idea aboutsupernatural reality, such as god, spirits and afterlife. A special kindof knowledge, which is directed toward practical application in thephysical and social world, is called Technology. Technologyincludes the methods and techniques used to build the GoldenGate Bridge, it also includes the methods the federal governmentuses to try to control economic problems such as inflation orunemployment.

4.8 NORMATIVE

The normative component of culture consists of definition ofwhat ought to be. Included are values and specific rules of conduct(norms) by which human behavior is guided and regulated.Normative culture will be discussed in topic.

Many parts of culture contain both longitive and normativecomponents. An ideology, for example, is a system of beliefs aboutthe social world that is strongly rooted in a set of values andinterests. The leading ideologies of our time democracy, capitalism,communism, socialism which directly or indirectly shape muchhuman behavior in the world, are large systems of ideas that defineboth what is or exists, and what ought to be. They offer an analysisof how societies function and also a prescription for change.

(a) Norms

Norms are the rules of behavior of that are agreed upon andshared within a culture and that prescribe limits of acceptablebehavior. The refine “Normal” expected behavior and help peopleall live predictability in their lives.

(b) Mores and Folkways

Mores (pronounced more ays) are strongly held norms thatusually have a moral connotation and based on the central valuesof the culture. Violations of mores produce strong negativereactions, which are often supported by the law. Desecration of achurch or temple, sexual molestation of a child, rape, murder,incest, and child beating all are violations of American mores.

Not all norms command such absolute conformity. Much ofday-to-day life is governed by traditions, or folkways, which arenorms that permit a wide degree of individual interpretation as longas certain limits are not overstepped. People who violate folkwaysare seen as peculiar or possibly eccentric, but rarely do they elicitstrong public response. For example, a wide range of dress is now

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acceptable in most theaters and restaurants. Men and women maywear clothes ranging form business attire to jeans, and opennecked shirt, or a sweater.

Good manners in our culture also show a range ofacceptable behavior. Folkways also vary from one culture toanother. In the United States, for example, it is customary to thanksomeone for a gift. To fail to do so is to be ungrateful and illmannered. Subtle culture difference can make international gift agiving however, a source of anxiety or embarrassment to wellmeaning business travels.

Norms are specific expectation about social behavior, but itis important to add that they are not absolute. Even though welearn what is expected in out culture, there is room for variation inindividual interpretation of these norms that deviate from the idealnorm.

(c) Ideal Norms and Real Norms

Ideal norms are expectations of what people should dounder perfect conditions. These are the norms we first teach ourchildren. They tend to be simple, making few distinctions andallowing for no exceptions. In reality, however, nothing abouthuman beings is ever that dependable. Real norms are norms thatare expressed with qualifications and allowances for difference inindividual behavior. They specify how people actually behave. Theyreflect the fact that a person’s behavior is guided by norms as wellas unique situations.

The concept of ideal and real norms are useful fordistinguishing between mores and folkways. For mores, the idealand the real norms tend to be very close, whereas folkways can bemuch more loosely connected. But we might violate a folkway byneglecting to say thank you, for example without provoking generaloutrage. More important, the very fact that a culture legitimizes thedifference between ideal and real expectations allows us room tointerpret norms to a greater or lesser degree according to our ownpersonal dispositions.

(d) Values

Values are a culture’s general orientation toward life itsnotions of what is desirable and undesirable.

Valves can also be understood by looking at patterns ofbehavior. For example, sociologists have frequently noted thedifferent levels of violence in the northern and southern UnitedStates. Two researchers (Nisbett & Cohen, 1996) reached the

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conclusion that southerners and northerners have different valuesabout the appropriate use of violence not across the board, but incertain specific areas, all of which seen linked to nations of honorand respect. Southerners, they found, are more likely to agree thatviolence is acceptable in defense of home and family, and areespecially likely to endorse violence as a response to insults andaffronts, most of all when they honor threatened is honor lost and aresponse to the possible loss of honor is often necessary.

(e) Language

Language enables humans to organize the world aroundthem into labeled cognitive and use these labels to communicatewith one another. Language, therefore, makes possible theteaching and sharing of the values, norms and non material culture.It provides the principal means through which culture is transmittedand the foundation on which the complexity of human thought andexperience rests.

Language allows human to transcend the limitationsimposed by their environment and biological evolution.

4.9 MATERIAL CULTURE and Non Material Culture

The material component of culture consisting of machines,tools, books clothing, and so on is called the material culture. Whenarcheologists dig up the remains of an ancient city, it is the materialculture that they find, a broken pot a necklace carefully stored in alittle wooden box, the foundations of a house from these artifacts;they are able to reconstruct some of the nonmaterial cognitive andnormative components of the culture.

All material artifacts express some non-material culturalmeaning, but the same artifact may have contrary meaning indifferent societies. For example, the colored piece of cloth that weknow as the American flag is honored and revered by mostAmericans, but in some foreign, countries, and even within theUnited States, it has been torn up and destroyed. In a remoteprimitive tribe it might be considered a pretty price of material to beused for clothing.

Material culture is created and can be changed by humanity,but it equally usefully to think of it as a fixed part of society to whichwe must adjust throughout our lives. People design and build cities,but cities then have lasting effects on the lives of those who dwell inthem. In this respect material culture is the same as nonmaterialculture human beings shape it, but it also shapes human beings.

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Check Your Progress

1. Bring out the important component of culture.2. Write the note on material components of culture

4.10 TOWARDS A GLOBAL CULTURE

Changes in the world economy since the 1970s and 1980shave led to serious intellectual debates on postmodernism and postFordism based on de monopolization of economic structure with thede regulation and globalization of markets, trade, and labour. Someof these changes are increase in the numbers of internationalagencies and institutions, the increasing global forms ofcommunication explosion in travel and tourism industry, theacceptance of unified global time, the preponderance of globalfinancial networks, the phenomenon of global competitions andprices, the development of standard nations of citizenship, rightsand competition of humankind.

Postmodernism questions the earlier assumptions of culturalimperialism, Americanization, and mass consumer which alleged ahomogenizing process leading to a proto universal culture.

Anthony Smith (Featherstone 1991) contends thatintensification of contacts between cultures does not necessarilylead to tolerance for the globalization process. He emphasizes theresilience of the ethnic communities, the ethic cores of nations, thepre-modern traditions, memories, myths, values, and symbolswoven together and sustained in popular consciousness. Accordingto him, a world of competing national cultural seeking to improvethe ranking of their states, offers the prospect of global “culturalwars” with little basis for global projects of cultural integration,lingue francs, and ecumenical or cosmopolitan “unity throughdiversity” notions, despite the existence of the necessary technicalcommunication infrastructures. In short, there is little prospect of aunified global culture, rather there are global culture in the plural.Yet ‘the intensity and rapidity of today’s global cultural flows havecontributed to the sense that the world is a singular place whichentails the proliferation of new cultural forms for encounters. While

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this increasingly dense web of cosmopolitan local encounters andinterdependencies can gives rise of third culture and increasingtolerance, it can also result in negative reactions and intolerance.

Indeed, the onslaught of globalization has not only failed toweaken or homogenize local cultures but in fact there has been aresurgence of localism .In recent years many ethnic groups aroundthe world have sought to revive their traditional cultures andreaffirm their identity. Regions and communities now embrace theidea of cultural renewal or reaffirmation. Wolfgang Sachs coinedthe term cosmopolitan localism to refer to the assertion of diversityas a universal right and the identification as globally formed.

Peasants in India, Peru, Mexico and many other places arerecovering and implementing traditional present culture andtechnologies rooted in indigenous ecology. For example, in 1993,the Karnataka farmers association protested against the intention ofcargill seeds to patent germplasm and launched a campaign toencourage grass roots organization to resist the development oftransgenic crops and to promote regional varieties. Similarly in1996 a small village in Kerala ( Pattuvam) declared its absoluteownership over all genetic resources within its jurisdiction. A groupof young villagers came up with the idea of documenting local plantspecies and crop cultivators growing within the villages boundaries.

Check Your Progress

1. Write a note on towards a global culture

4.11 SUMMARY

Culture refers to the system of values and meaning shard bya group or society, including the embodiment of those values andmeanings in material culture. Culture and society are two relatedbut analytically distinct aspect of social reality. The study of culturefocuses on the values and ideas that mold group structure and giveit meaning whereas the examination of society is concerned withpatterns of organization and interaction built upon that culturalbackground.

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The human ability to create and learn a culture is based onpeople’s ability to create and manipulate symbols, especially thoseof language. The way people use symbols shapes their perceptionof reality. The structure of language for example, contains a set ofunconscious assumptions, giving people a particular perspectivethat makes it easier to con very some ideas of concepts thanothers.

In order to study a cultures major values and norms anddetermine how these are reflected in social behavior,anthropologists and sociologists examine a culture as a unifiedwhole through careful, in depth observation and participation. A firstprinciple of cultural analysis is cultural relativity, the idea that everyculture must be understood and judged on its own terms. Socialscientists strive to avoid ethnocentrism the attitude that ones ownculture is by nature superior, and the tendency to evaluate anotherculture in the terms of ones own. Excessive ethnocentrism caninhibit exchange with other culture and pro mote isolation or conflictas societies becomes increasing interdependent. Modern societiesrely on formal education to combat ethnocentrism. However, evenwith preparation and forewarning of cultural differences exposure toanother culture often produces culture shock disorientation orpsychological stress.

Since each culture is adapted to meet a specific set ofphysical and social circumstances, each culture is relatively uniqueand distinctive. However, cultural diversity can be easilyoveremphasized. The comparison of many culture revealsfundamental similarities the natural environment, and certainrequirements of social living impose common problems anduniversal limitation on all human groups.

A society’s culture is often only a common denominator ofthe diverse cultural elements found within a society. When a groupwithin a society has a life style that includes features of thedominant culture and also certain cultural elements not found inother groups the group culture is called a subculture. A subculturethat is so different form the prevailing culture as to sharplychallenge it is termed a counterculture. Every complex society hasa variety of subcultures, and an individual may participate in morethan one. Sometime passing through several in his life time .

4.12 SUGGESTED READING

1. Schaeffer and Lamm [1998], Sociology (6th Edition). McGrawHill

2. Macionis John [2005], Sociology (10th Edition). Prentice Hall

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3. Abraham Francis M [2010], Contemporary Sociology: AnIntroduction to Concepts and Theories. New Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press

4. Giddens, Anthony, [2001] Sociology (4th Edition). Polity Press

5. Marshall, Gordon. Dictionary of Sociology. New Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press

4.13 QUESTION

1. Define culture elaborate on the characteristics of culture?2. Write a note on components of culture?

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5

SOCIETY AND GROUPS

Unit Structure

5.0 Objectives

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Evolution of society

5.2.1 Hunting and food gathering

5.2.2 Horticulturists

5.2.3 Agricultural and feudal

5.2.4 Industrial

5.2.5 Post Industrial

5.3 Questions

5.0 OBJECTIVES

To bring awareness among students regarding the evolutionof society

To acquaint students with the different types of social groups

5.1 INTRODUCTION

Sir Charles Darwin in his thesis ‘origin of species’ traced thebiological evolution of living organisms from simple unicellularamoeba to the most complex multi cellular organism like humanbeing. Some of the earliest and greatest sociologist too viewedsocieties evolving from simple, food gathering societies to thecomplex, modern societies. This social evolution they tracedthrough a set of stages and is called ‘unilinear evolution’.

Society is a system of usages and procedures of authorityand mutual aid, many groupings and division of controls of humanbehaviour and of liberties. This ever changing, complex system wecall society. It is the web of social relationship.

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5.2 EVOLUTION OF SOCIETIES (based on the modeof subsistence OR the types of technology)

Our social world consists of thousand of human societies. Itis said that there has been a general historical trend of socio-cultural evolution, a process which is more or less similar tobiological evolution. A society like an organism has to adapt to itsenvironment in order to exploit food resources. In this process ofsocio-cultural evolution some societies have evolved further andfaster than others; some have become “stuck” at a particular level.In general, all have changed in ways that are unique to themselves.

Thus, it is on the basis of the level of technology or relianceon the basic type of subsistence strategy, societies can begenerally classified-

5.2.1 HUNTING AND FOOD GATHERING SOCIETIES:

As Gerhard Len Ski pointed out in his “Human Societies”(1970) the oldest and the simplest type of society is the huntingsociety. Such a society is characterized by a small and sparsepopulation; a nomadic way of life and a very primitive technology.They have the most primitive tools such as stone axes, spears andknives.

Hunting societies consist of very small, primary groups andtheir number not exceed generally 40-50 members. They arenomadic in nature they have to leave one area as soon as theyhave exhausted its food resources. Family and kinship are the onlyinterconnected social institutions which these societies havepolitical institution are not found as all people are considered to beequal as they virtually have no property. Division of labour is limitedalong the lines of age and sex. Men and women, young and oldperform different role, but there are no specialised occupationalroles. There is gender based division of labour, but there is nogender inequality as such, production is communal and cooperativeand the distribution system is based on sharing. Religion is notdeveloped among these people in to a complex institution. Theytend to see the world as populated by unseen spirits that must betaken into account but not necessarily worshipped.

The economy of hunting and food gathering societies issubsistence based. They collect enough for the needs of theirpeople and there is hardly any surplus in such a economy. Theprimary means of production consist of their hunting and gatheringskills and their own labour. All able bodied bodies adults andchildren engage in hunting and food gathering activities. Sharing isone of the central economic characteristics of a hunting and foodgathering society. The most common type of social relationship is

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co-operation. Co-operation is important because hunting andgathering activities need group efforts. The sharing of the produceis common. There is no competition and conflict too is minimal asthere is no accumulated surplus to fight over. The concept ofprivate property as it applies to personal possessions is absent.Hence, private property as we understand it did not exist in huntingand gathering societies.

The rate of social change in nomadic hunting and gatheringsocieties was very slow. A few such societies still exist, for e.g theBushmen of South Africa, some Eskimo tribes etc.

Around 10 to 12 thousand years ago, some hunting and foodgathering groups began to adopt a new subsistence strategy basedon the domestication of herds of animals. Many people living indeserts of other regions which are not suited for cultivation,adopted strategy and started taming animals such as goats orsheep which could be used as a source of food. Pastoral societiesstill exists today in the modern world. These societies are larger insize and may have hundreds or even thousands of members, andthese societies provided an assured food supply. Even in thesesocieties, like the hunters and gatherers people are nomadic innature because of their seasonal need to find sufficient grazingareas for their herds.

5.2.2 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES

Horticultural societies first came into existence in the MiddleEast about 4000 BC and subsequently spread to China andEurope; those that survive today are found mainly in sub SaharanAfrica.

Horticultural society is associated with the elementarydiscovery that plants can be grown from seeds. While herding iscommon in areas with poor soil, horticultural is more common asmeans of subsistence in regions with fertile soil. Horticulturalsocieties first appeared at about the same time as pastoralsocieties. Examples for horticultural societies are Gururumba tribein New Guinea and Masai people of kenya.

Horticultural societies are just subsistence societies likehunting gathering societies. They specialise in growing plants suchas wheat, rice and the horticulturists is typically based on a ‘slashand burn’ technology. This is a type of strategy in which peopleclear areas of land, burn the trees and plants they have cut down,rise crops for 2 to 3 years until the soil is exhaused and then repeatthe process else where. Unlike the pastorists, horticulturists havelarger population and stay in one place longer before they migratein search of better conditions.

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As this society assures better food supply there is anexistence of surplus which leads to specialisation of roles whichsupported production and trading of variety of products such asboats, salt, pottery etc. This allowed some wealthy individuals tobecome more powerful than others and lead to emergence ofpolitical institutions in the form of chieftainships. Warfare becamemore common in these societies and horticultural societies are alsothe first known societies to support the institution of slavery. Asthese people had a permanent settlement they could create moreelaborate cultural artifacts like houses, thrones etc.

5.2.3 AGRICULTURAL OR FEUDAL SOCIETIES

Agricultural societies first arose in ancient Egypt and werebased on the introduction of the harnessing of animal power. Themode of production of the hunter gathering society which producesnone of its food, and the horticultural society which produces foodin small gardens rather than big fields . Invention of the plough hadenabled people to make a great leap forward in food productionand has enabled a person to achieve great productivity. It alsomade it possible to work on land which as been previously uselessfor food production. Size of the agricultural societies is muchgreater than the horticultural of pastoral communities. The full timespecialists who engage themselves in non-agricultural activitiestend to concentrate in some compact places which lead to the birthof cities.

In course of time, agricultural societies led to theestablishment of more elaborate political institutions. Power wasconcentrated in the hand of a single individual and a hereditarymonarchy emerged who became powerful. Court system providingjustice also emerged and these developments made the state aseparate powerful institution. For the first time, two distinct socialclasses those who own the land and those who work on the land ofothers made their appearance and this created major differencesbetween the strata. Warfare became a regular feature and for thefirst time, full time permanent armies made their appearances.Proper roads, waterways were developed and such developmentsbrought the previously isolated communities into contact with onanother. Since more food was produced than is necessary forsubsistence, agricultural societies were able to support peoplewhose sole purpose is to provide creative ideas to the culture.Hence poets, writers, artists, scientists were encouraged and newcultural artifacts such as paintings, statues, building and stadiumscame into existence. Hence the agricultural societies had a morecomplex social structure and culture compared to the earliersocieties.

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Feudal societies emerged in Europe at that stage when thestate was unable any longer to exercise direct control over thepopulation. Political power was decentralised in the sense thatwarriors were able to claim rights over a local territory and enforcetheir own brand of justice by means of military might. Unarmedpeasants were unable to challenge the power of the warrior (ornoble) who had personal supporters with horses and weapons.Military power was linked to wealth, which meant, in this case,agricultural land. The greater a noble’s military power, the moreland he could control; and the larger his estates, the more warriorshe could support in order to secure his domain.

Production activity was carried out by peasants, who lived onand cultivated the land which was controlled by the feudal lords.The lords compelled the peasants to hand over a considerableportion of the agricultural goods that they produced and also toperform customary personal services for the benefit of the lord.

In the early periods of feudalism, the link between a nobleand his peasants was maintained in the form of a personalagreement which ended upon the death of either party. Buteventually the condition of the peasants and the privileged status ofthe nobles became hereditary, passing down from one generationto another.

The nobility and the serfs thus emerged as two distinct stratain feudal society and the clergy formed a third stratum. The CatholicChurch had enormous secular power, since it possessed the rightto income from vast expanses of land. As men of learning,clergymen were taken for granted by most of the population, aworld view which included the nation that the supremacy of theking, the privileges of the nobility and the lowly position of serfswere all ordained by God . Thus the power of the Church was usedto legitimate the system of social inequality.

In Europe from the twelfth century onward, feudal societywas affected by the gradual transformation of local markets intopermanent towns, with important implications for the emergence ofa fourth stratum. Eventually the townsmen (or burgesses), usingwealth acquired form trade strengthened the economic power of theburgesses as against that of the nobility.

Thus, feudal society came to comprise four distinct socialstrata: the nobility and the clergy, who controlled most of the landand enjoyed the agricultural surplus; the serfs, who cultivated theland and were bound to it ; and the burgesses. These classes were,by and large, closed ; access to the nobility or the peasantry wasdetermined by birth, though occasionally peasants could escapefrom feudal bondage to the towns, and rich merchants were

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sometimes able to purchase titles and estates. The clergy was, ofcourse an exception to the rule of hereditary classes and they hadno legal heirs.

Hence the agricultural and feudal societies had a far morecomplex Social Structure compared to the earlier societies.

5.2.4 INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES

The industrial mode of production began in England about250 years ago. It became a very successful one and has sincespread all over the world. Industrial societies have existed only inthe very modern era, dating from the industrialisation of GreatBritain in the late 18 century. The most advanced industrialsocieties today are found in North America, Europe and East Asiaincluding Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Countriessuch as India, Mexico, Brazil and some African countries have alsobecome industrialised to a great extent.

Industrial Revolution spanning the later 18th to the early 19th

centuries is an event of great socio-economic and historicalsignificance. Technology based on modern scientific knowledgelead to higher rate of technology innovation. These innovations inturn brought about a flood of social changes. New technologiessuch as steam engine, electrical power, atomic energy broughtabout a lot of changes in the society. this stimulated populationgrowth with increasing members living in cities and metropolitanareas where most jobs are located. New medical technologies andimproved living standards served to extend life expectancy.

Division of labour became highly complex and tens ofthousands new specialised jobs were created. The family lost manyof its function as it no longer remained as a producing unit but hadto be content with as a unit of consumption. Various technologicaland scientific developments made religion lose its hold incontrolling the behaviour of the people. Education evolved into anindependent and distinct institution and formal education became acompulsory rather than a luxury for a few. Hereditary monarchiesdied out giving place to more democratic institutions. Stateassumed the central power in the industrial society ad was moreknown for its welfare activities.

Industrial societies gave rise to a number of secondarygroup such as corporations, political parties, business houses andorgainsations of various kind. Primary groups tend to loose theirimportance and more social life takes place in the context ofsecondary groups. New life styles and values created a much moreheterogeneous culture which spread its influence far and wide.

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Families and kinship as social institutions tend to lose theirimportance. The family lost many of his functions. It no longerremained as a producing unit but has to be content with as a unit ofconsumption. It lost the main responsibility of educating the youngones. Kinship ties are weakened. Kinship does not play animportant role in unifying and controlling people.

Religious institutions are no longer paying an important rolein controlling the behaviour of the people. People hold manydifferent and competing values and beliefs. The world no longerremains as the God – centred world for it is looked upon as theman-centred one. Various technological and scientific developmenthave made religion lose its hold as an unquestioned source ofmoral authority.

For the first time, science emerges out as a new and veryimportant social institution. Science looked upon as a promisingand an effective means of socio-economic progress. Similarlyeducation has evolved in to an independent and distinct institution.Any industrial society for that matter requires a literate population tounderstand and make use of the modern technological innovations.For the first time, formal education becomes a compulsory thing formajority of people rather than a luxury for the few.

State which assumed the central power in the industrialsociety is more known for its welfare activities than for theregulative functions. State is increasingly involved in the economic,educational, medical, military and other activities.

Industrialism is normally associated with the emergence ofthe two social classes the rich and the poor between whom sharpinequalities are found. They are referred to by Marx as the havesand the have nots.

Industrial societies give rise to a number of secondary groupsuch as corporation, political parties, business houses, governmentbureaucracies, cultural and literary associations and specialpurpose organisatiion of various kind. New life styles and valuescreated a much heterogeneous culture which spread its influencefar and wide.

5.2.5 POST INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

The concept of Post Industrial Society was first formulated in1962 by Daniel Bell and subsequently in his seminal work (Comingof post industrial Society – 1974). It described the economic andsocial changes in the late twentieth century. According to Bell in theeconomy this is reflected in the decline of goods production andmanufacturing as the main form of economic activity, to be replaced

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by services. With regard to class structure, a new class ofprofessional and technical occupations have come in to existence.

In all spheres like economic, political and social decisionmaking this new class influenced in making a new intellectualtechnology. The post industrial society is predominated by amanufacturing based economy and moved on to a structure ofsociety based on the provision of information, innovation, financeand services. The economy underwent a transition from theproduction of goods to the provision of services and knowledgebecame a valued form of capital. Through the process ofglobalisation and automation, the value and importance to theeconomy of the blue collar, unionized work, including manuallabour (eg-assembly- line work) declined and those of professionalworkers) grew in value and prevalence. Behavioral and informationsciences and technologies are developed and implemented.

Thus through these different types of societies we haveunderstood that the type of society in which man lived in thebeginning is very different from the type of society in which he livestoday. The story of human social life has undergone several formsand changes. Historically, societies have taken number of differentforms and have changed in ways that are unique themselves.

Check your Progress

1. Discuss the features of hunting and food gathering society.2. Explain the characteristics of Agricultural or Feudal societies.3. Industrial society existed in the late 18 century – discuss.

5.3 QUESTIONS

1. “Societies have passed on from one stage to another –Discuss

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6

SOCIAL GROUPS

Unit Structure :

6.0 Objectives

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Social Groups

6.3 Importance of social groups

6.4 Classification of Social Groups

6.5 Primary In group and out group

6.6 Primary groups and secondary groups

6.7 Questions

6.0 OBJECTIVES

To introduce the different social groups to the students existingin the society.

To understand the importance of society.

6.1 INTRODUCTION

Man is a social animal: No man lives alone. He is basically asocial creature. The great Greek Philosopher- Aristotle said longback that man is a social animal. He further remarked that he whodoes not live in society is either a beast or a angel. Wit theexception of hermits, shepherds, lighthouse keepers, prisoners insolitary confinement and possibly a few others, all human beingslive in groups. Men everywhere live in groups. Man’s daily life ismade up largely by participating in groups. Not only our lifebecomes boring and unbearable without fellow human beings butalso our very survival becomes problematic. Total ostracise fromone’s group is probably the cruelest punishment – short of onlydeath. Throughout his life, the individual belongs to temporary andpermanent groups which are organised for specific or generalgoals.

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6.2 SOCIAL GROUPS

Definition and characteristics of group: Harry M. Johnson saysthat ‘A social group is a system of social interaction’ Marshal Jonesis of the opinion that a social as ‘any collection of human beingswho are brought into human relationships with one another’

Characteristics of Social Groups:

The main characteristics of social groups are as follows:

1. Collection of individual: Social groups consists of people.Without individuals there can be no groups. Just as we cannothave a college or a university without students and teachers wecannot have a group in the absence of people.

2. Interaction among members: Social interaction is the verybasis of group life. Hence mere collection of individuals does notmake a group. The members must have a interaction. A socialgroup, is in fact a system of social interaction. The limits ofsocial groups are marked by the limits of social interaction.

3. Mutaual Awareness: Group life involves mutual awareness.Group members are aware of one another and their behaviouris determined by this mutual recognition.

4. ‘We – feeling’: We feeling refers to the tendency on the part ofthe members to identify themselves with the groups. Itrepresents group unity. ‘We – felling creates sympathy in andfosters cooperation among members. It helps group members todefend their interests collectively.

5. Group Unity and solidarity: Group members are tied by thesense of unity. The solidarity or integration of a group is largelydependent upon the frequency, the variety, and the emotionalquality of the interactions of its members. A family or a friendsgroup, or a religious group is highly united and integrated,because its members are related by several common interestsand have frequent social contacts with one another and expressa high degree of morale and of loyalty. Unity is maintained moreoften by conscious efforts.

6. Common Interests: the interests and ideals of group arecommon. Groups are mostly formed or established for thefulfillment of certain interests. Form of groups differs dependingupon the common interests of the group. Hence are politicalgroups, religious groups, economic groups, and so on.

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7. Group Norms: Every group has its own rules or norms whichthe members are supposed to follow. These norms may be inthe form of customs, folkways, mores, traditions etc. They maybe written or unwritten norms or standards. Every group has itsown ways and means of punishing or correcting those who goagainst the rules.

8. Size of the groups: Social groups vary in size. A group may besmall as that of dyad (two members’ group e.g. husband andwife family) or as big as that of a political party having lakhs ofmembers.

9. Groups are Dynamic: Social groups are not static but dynamic.They are subject to change whether slow or fast. Old membersdie and new members are born. Whether due to internal ornormal pressures, groups undergo changes.

10. Stability: Groups are stable or unstable; permanent ortemporary in character. Some groups like the crowd, mob,audience, spectators’ group etc are temporary and unstable. Butmany groups are relatively permanent and stable in character.

6.3 IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL GROUPS

The study of human society is essentially the study of humangroups. No man exists without a society and no society existswithout groups. Groups have become a part and parcel of our life.

1. Survival becomes problematic without Groups: Groups havebecome so necessary that our very survival becomesproblematic and doubtful in their absence. Man by birth itselfhas the biological potentiality of becoming man the social being.

2. Man becomes man only among men: Various studies haveconvincingly proved that man fails to develop human qualities inthe absence of human environment. The biologically blossomsonly in the context of groups.

3. Groups help Social survival also: Man by engaging himself inconstant relations with others he learns things and mends hisways. In brief, from birth to death, man s engaged in theprocess of socialization which helps him to develop apersonality of his own.

6.4 CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS

Social groups have been classified in various ways. Someclassifications are simple and some are elaborate. Various writers

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have chosen different bases of classifying groups such as racialfeatures, religious beliefs, territory, nature of government, size,caste, sex, age, class, occupation, blood relationships, nature ofsocial interaction, range of group interests, permanent or temporarynature, degree of mobility and so on.

6.5 IN GROUP AND OUT GROUP

American Sociologist W. G. Sumner in his book “Folkways”has classified groups into “in groups” and “out groups”. Thisclassification defends more on psychological factors rather thatexternal physical factors. The groups which an individual belongs(or feels that he belongs) is an “in group” and the rest of the groupsare “out groups”. Example: One’s own family, peer group,friendship group, religious groups, caste group, linguistic group etc‘in groups” and other groups are “out groups”.

In group and out group relationship are overlapping

In the simple tribal societies ‘in and out group; relationshipsare very simple and direct as those who belong to the same classor totemic group, or kin group are identified as members of ingroups and others as outsiders.

In modern society, people belong to so many group that anumber of their in group and out group relationship may overlap.For example, a person in the urban neighborhood may consider thepeople (who belong to different social classes, caste groups,religious groups, political groups linguistic groups etc) living in hisneighborhood as member of his ‘in group’ for some limitedpurposes. when the question of his caste interest or religiousinterest arises the same person may consider people who belong tohis own caste or linguistic or religious interest arises same personmay consider people who belong to his won caste or linguistic orreligious interest arises the same person may consider people whobelong to his own caste or linguistic or religious group members ofhis in group and other as outsiders.

Relative Influence of In group and Out groups

In group and out group relations lead to someconsequences. Members tend to regard their own group, the ingroup as being something special, more worthy, more intimate,helpful, dependable. and so on. On the contrary, an out group towhich other people belong, is considered less worthy, less intimate,not dependable, and it may be viewed with hostility.

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In group and out groups affect behaviour

In groups and out groups are important because they affectbehaviour. From fellow members of an in group we expectrecognition, loyalty and helpfulness. From outsiders ourexpectations varies with the kind of out group. We expect hostilityfrom some out groups, a more or less friendly competition fromsome others, from still a few others a total indifference.

As far as in groups are concerned, they draw the memberstogether and increase the solidarity and cohesion of the group. Inthe presence of a common enemy, real or imaginary, in groups playa vital role in uniting people against the common ‘danger’.

6.6 PRIMARY GROUPS AND SECONDARY GROUPS

The meaning or primary groups

The concept of ‘primary groups’ is a significant contributionof C. H. Cooley to the social thought. Primary groups are found inall the societies. The primary group is the nucleus of all socialorganisation. It is a small group in which a few persons come intodirect contact with another. These persons meet face to face formutual help, companionship and discussion of common questions.

Cooley used the term ‘primary groups’ to mean a socialgroup characterised by face to face relationship, mutual aid andcompanionship. By primary groups, Cooley meant the intimatepersonal ‘face to face’ groups in which we find our companions andcomrades as the members of our family and our daily associates.These are the people with whom we enjoy the more intimate kind ofsocial relations. The primary groups can be referred to as the ‘Wegroups’. Cooley explained that a primary group involves the sort ofsympathy and mutual identification for which we is the naturalexpression.

Primary groups are universal groups functioning in all stagesof cultural development. Primary groups socialise the individuals.Examples for primary groups: Family, neighborhood, children’s playground, peer group etc.

Chief Characteristics of Primary Groups

1. Dominance of face to face relations: Primary groups arecharacterised by close and intimate relationships among themembers. There exists a face to face relationship. In primarygroups everyone knows everyone else; one’s name and fame,one’s status, wealth, occupation, level of education etc. Close

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contact between them increases intimacy among the members.Face to face relations are commonly observed in small groupslike family, neighborhood etc.

2. The relationship is personal: In the primary groups theinterest of each is centred in others as persons. The relationshipdisappears if the particular person disappears from it. Therelationship is non transferable and irreplaceable. Therelationship between the husband and wife is such that no thirdperson can replace any one of them.

3. The Relationship is Spontaneous: A purely primaryrelationship is voluntary. It is not planned. It is not based on anycontract. Relationships develop between naturally. Therelationships that develop between the mother and child,husband and wife are purely voluntary and spontaneous.

4. Small size: Primary Groups are smaller in size. Effectiveparticipation of the members is possible only when the group isof a small size. The character of the group tends to change withthe size. The increase in the size of the group will have negativeeffect on the intimacy of the members.

5. Physical Proximity or nearness: Face to face relations can befound only when members reside in a more or less permanently.Seeing and talking with each other facilitates exchange of ideas,opinions and sentiments. Physical proximity provides anopportunity for the very development of primary groups.

6. Stability of the group: A primary group is relatively apermanent group. Social ties deepen in time.

7. Similarity of background: The members of a primary groupmust have more or less similar background. Each must have tosomething to contribute, to give as well as to take.

8. Limited self interest: Members of the primary groupsubordinate their personal interest to the interests of the group.The common interest of the group is strong enough to controlindividual interest. The commonness of interests providesmental pleasure and contentment to the members.

9. Communication: Communication in the case of primary grouplike family or children’s play group, for example is very quickand effective. Direct face to face contact helps easycommunication between the members.

10.Direct Co operation: Direct co operation characterises primarygroup. Members work directly and in cooperation with each

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other to achieve their common interest. Work is essentially ‘amode of sharing a common experience’. The group is a unity inthe performance of a function.

The meaning of secondary groups:

An understanding of the modern industrial society requiresan understanding of the secondary groups. The secondary groupsare almost opposite to primary groups. The social groups otherthan those of primary. Groups may be termed as secondarygroups. Maclver and page refer to them as great associations. Theyare of the opinion that secondary groups have become almostinevitable today. their appearance is mainly due to the growingcultural complexity.

Ogburn and Nimkoff say that the ‘groups which provideexperience lacking in intimacy’ can be called secondary groups.

Frank D Watson writes ‘the secondary groups is larger andmore formal, is specialised and direct in its contacts and reliesmore for unity and continuance upon the stability of its socialorganisation than does the

Characteristics of the Secondary Groups:

1. Dominance of secondary relations: Secondary groups arecharacterised by indirect, impersonal, contractual and noninclusive relations. Relations are indirect because secondarygroups are bigger in size and the members may not staytogether. Relations are contractual in the sense; they areoriented towards certain interests and desires.

2. Largeness of the size: Secondary groups are relatively largerin size. City, nation, political parties, trade unions, corporationsare bigger in size. They may have thousands and lakhs ofmembers. There may not be any limit to the membership in thecase of some secondary groups.

3. Membership: Membership in the case of secondary groups isvoluntary. For example, they are at liberty to join politicalparties, international associations like the rotary club, lion club,and business corporations and so on. However, there are somesecondary groups like the state whose membership is almostinvoluntary.

4. No physical Basis: Secondary groups are not characterised byphysical proximity . Many secondary groups are not limited toany definite area. There are some secondary groups like RotaryClub and the Lion Club which are almost international in

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character. The members of such groups are scattered over avast area.

5. Specific Ends or Interests: Secondary groups are formed forthe realisation of some specific interests or ends. They arecalled ‘special interest groups’. Members are interested in thegroup because they have specific ends to aim at.

6. Indirect Communication: Contacts and communications in thecase of secondary groups are almost indirect. Impersonalnature of social relationships in secondary groups is both thecause and effect of indirect communication.

7. Nature of social control: Informal means of social control areless effective in regulating the relations of members. Moralcontrol is only secondary. Formal means of social control suchas law, legislation, police, court etc are made use of to controlthe behaviour of members.

8. Group Structure: The secondary group has a formal structure.Secondary groups are mostly organised groups. Differentstatuses and roles that the members assume are specified.Distinctions based on caste, colour, region or religion, class,language etc are less rigid and the greater tolerance towardother people and groups.

Check your Progress

1. Define and discuss the characteristics of social groups.2. Discuss the characteristics of primary groups.3. Discuss the characteristics of secondary groups.4. Write a note on the importance of social groups.

6.7 QUESTIONS

1. “An individual belongs to temporary and permanent groupsall through his life” – Discuss.

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7

ELECTRONIC COMMUNITY(Net working)

Unit Structure

7.0 Objectives

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Types of Virtual Community

7.3 Social Network Services

7.4 Advantages of internet services

7.5 Disadvantages of internet services

7.6 Summary

7.7 Questions

7.0 OBJECTIVES

To make the students understand about electronic community(Virtual Communities)

To bring awareness about the types of virtual communities. To understand the advantages and disadvantages of internet

communities.

7.1 INTRODUCTION

A electronic community is also called a virtual communitywhich is a social network of individuals who interact throughspecific media, potentially crossing geographical and politicalboundaries in order to pursue mutual interest or goals.

Virtual or electronic communities have come into existencemainly after the explosive diffusion of the internet since 1990’s andhave taken the forms of social networking services and onlinecommunities.

The traditional definition of a community is of ageographically circumscribed entity (nighbourhoods, village etc).Virtual or electronic communities of course are usually dispersedgeographically and therefore not communities under the originaldefinition. Virtual communities resemble real life communities in the

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sense that they provide support, information, friendship andacceptance between strangers.

One of the most pervasive types of virtual community includesocial networking services, which consist of various onlinecommunities. virtual communities are used for a variety of socialand professional groups. It does not necessarily mean that there isa strong bond among the members.

7.2 TYPES OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

Internet message boards

An online message board is a forum where people candiscuss thoughts or ideas on various topics. Whenever the userrevisits the message board, he/she can make a response. Unlike aconversation, message boards do not have an instantaneousresponse and require that users actively go to the site to check forresponses.

Anyone can register to participate in an online messageboard. A message board is unique because people can choose toparticipate and be apart of the virtual community, even if theychoose not to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Registered userscan simply view the various threads or contribute if they choose to.Message board can also accommodate can almost infinite numberof users, something a chat room is limited to.

Online chat rooms

Shortly after the rise of interest in message boards andforums, people started to want a way of communicating with their“communities” in real time. The downside to message boards wasthat people would have to wait until another user replied to theirposting, which, with people all around the world in different timeframes, could take a while. The development of online chat roomsallowed people to talk to whoever was online at the same time theywere. This way, messages were sent and online users couldimmediately respond back.

Users can communicate as if they are speaking to oneanother in real life. This “like reality” attribute makes it easy forusers to form a virtual community, because chat rooms allow usersto get to know one another as if they were meeting in real life.

Virtual worlds

Virtual worlds are the most interactive of all virtualcommunity forms. In this type of virtual community, people are

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connected by living as an avatar in a computer-based world. Userscreate their own avatar character (from choosing the avatar’s outfitsto designing the avatar’s house) and control their character’s lifeand interactions with other characters in the 3-D virtual world. It issimilar to a computer game, however there is no objective for theplayers. A virtual world simply gives users the opportunity to buildand operate a fantasy life in the virtual realm. Characters within theworld can talk to one another and have almost the sameinteractions people would have in reality. For example, characterscan socialize with one another and hold intimate relationship online.

In a virtual world, characters can do activities together, justlike friends could do in reality. Communities in virtual worlds aremost similar to real life communities because the characters arephysically in the same place, even if the users who are operatingthe characters are not. It is close reality, except that the charactersare digital. Second Life is one the most popular virtual worlds onthe internet.

7.3 SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICES

Social network services are the most prominent type ofvirtual community. They are either a website or software platformthat focuses on creating and maintaining relationships. Facebook,Titte, and Myspace are all virtual communities. With these sites,one often creates a profile or account, and adds friends or followfriends. This allows people to connect and look for support usingthe social networking service as gathering place. These websitesoften allow for people to keep up to date with their friends andacquaintances activities without making much of an effort onFacebook, for example, one can upload photos and videos, chat,make friends, reconnect with old ones, and join groups or causes.

7.4 ADVANTAGES OF INTERNET SERVICES

Internet communities offer the advantage of instantinformation exchange that is not possible in a real-life community.This allows people to engage in many activities from their home,such as: shopping, paying bills, and searching for specificinformation. Users of online communities also have access tothousands of specific discussion groups where they can formspecialized relationships and access information in such categoriesas: politics, technical assistance, social activities, and recreationalpleasures. Virtual communities provide an ideal medium for thesetypes of relationships because information can easily be postedand response times can be very fast.

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Another benefit is these types of communities can give usersa feeling of membership and belonging. Users can give and receivesupport, and it is simple and cheap to use. Economically, virtualcommunities can be commercially successful, making moneythrough membership fees, subscriptions, usage fees, andadvertising commission, Consumers generally feel very comfortablemaking transactions online as long as the seller has a goodreputation throughout the community. Virtual communities alsoprovide the advantage of disintermediation in commercialtransactions, which eliminates vendors and connects buyersdirectly to suppliers. This eliminates pricey mark-ups and allows fora more direct line of contact between the consumer and themanufacturer.

7.5 DISADVANTAGES OF INTERNET COMMUNITIES

While instant communication means fast access, it alsomean that information is posted without out being reviewed forcorrectness. It is difficult to choose reliable sources because thereis no editor that reviews each post and makes sure is it up to acertain degree of quality. Everything comes from the writer with nofilter in between.

Identities can be kept anonymous online so it is common forpeople to use the virtual community to live out a fantasy as anothertype of person. Users should be wary of where information iscoming from online and be careful to double check facts withprofessionals.

Information online is different from information discussed in areal life community because it is permanently online. As a result,users must be careful what information they disclose aboutthemselves to ensure they are not easily identifiable, for safetyreasons.

Now slowly we have transformed ourselves from more socialcreatures into community creatures and it is the only way thathuman evolution will be able to proceed.

7.6 SUMMARY

Sociology is the study of social life, its forms anddimensions. Society is the largest distinguishable unit composed ofindividuals. Society has structure and continuity. Societies havetaken different forms in human history and can be classified in twoways : according to their modes of subsistence and according totheir patterns of social organisation. According to the firstclassification we can divide societies into hunting and gathering

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societies, horticultural societies, agricultural and early industrial andpost industrial societies.

Man as a social animal, leads a group life. He belongs tovariety of social groups to collection of individuals who interact witheach other. The individual identifies with the group, influences it insome cases and is influenced by it in others. The groups itself exertstrong pressure to conform to the standards and behaviouralpatterns of the overall membership.

Groups, associations and institutions make up structuralfabric of society, the largest meaningful group to which onebelongs. However the most meaningful relationship is that whichexists between the individual and the primary group, a small closeand emotionally involved collection of people. Secondary groupsare formal, less emotional and less intimate. Secondary groupsinclude formal organisations with prescribed rules and duties.

Thus every individual’s development as a human being aswell as his existence depends upon his or her continued interactionwith other people. Throughout an individual’s life he or she belongsto temporary and permanent groups which are organised forspecific or general goals.

Check your Progress

1. Discuss the characteristics of social groups?

2. Discuss the features of hunting and food gathering societies?

7.7 QUESTIONS

1. “Societies have passed on from one stage to another”-Discuss

2. Discuss the characteristics of primary groups and secondarygroup

3. Write note on In groups and Out groups

4. What do you mean by electronic community- Discuss

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REFERENCES

1. Society : An introductory Analysis – R. M. Maciuer and CharlesH. Page – Macmillan India Limited.

2. Sociology : A Systematic introduction – Harry M. Johnson –Allied Publishers Private Limited.

3. Sociology : Richard Wallace and Wendy Drew Wallance – Allynand Bacom Inc.

4. Sociology : A guide to problems and literature – T. B.Bothomore – Blackee and Son (India) Ltd.

5. Sociology – C. N. Shankar Rao – S. Chand & Company Ltd.

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8

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: CONCEPT ANDSIGNIFICANCE.

Unit Structure:

8.0 Objectives

8.1 Social institution: Meaning

8.2 Social stratification

8.2.1 Systems of stratification.

8.2.2 Functions of stratification

8.3 Religion

8.3.1 Elements of religion

8.3.2 Types of religious organization

8.3.3 Functions of religion

8.4 Summary

8.0 OBJECTIVES:

To understand the concept of social institution. To understand the meaning and functionality of social

stratification. To critically look at the concept and significance of religious

institution.

8.1 SOCIAL INSTITUTION: MEANING.

A social institution is a complex, integrated set of socialnorms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value.MacIver defines institution as the established forms or conditions ofprocedure characteristic of group activity. The recognizedestablished set of rules, traditions and usages of every organizationis referred to as institutions. Institutions are means of controllingindividuals with set rules and are there to satisfy the primary needsof man.

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8.2 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

In every society there is existence of some sort of inequalitybased on income, occupation, education or hereditary status.Throughout history societies have used some system ofclassification such as kings and slaves, lords and serfs, rich andpoor, landlords and labourers, upper and lower castes etc. Socialstratification refers to a system of structured inequality which ratesand ranks members of a society based on select criteria and limitsaccess to wealth, power, privileges and opportunities. It is not aclassification of individuals based on their attributes but anestablished system of classifying groups. E.g. caste system inIndia.

Raymond Murray defines social stratification as “horizontaldivision of society into higher and lower social units”.

Gisbert defines social stratification as “division of society intopermanent groups or categories linked with each other by therelationship of superiority and subordination”.

8.2.1 There are 3 commonly recognized systems of stratification.They are estate, caste and class.

The estate system of stratification was part of the feudalsystem and prevalent in Europe during the middle ages. It is aclosed system in which a person’s social position is defined by lawbased land ownership, occupation and hereditary status. Theestate system consisted of feudal lords, clergy, merchants andcraftsman and serfs. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of thefew who enjoyed hereditary status and prestige. On the whole theestate system involved a hierarchical order based on hereditaryand social mobility was restricted.

The caste system represents a rigid form of stratificationbased on hereditary status, traditional occupation and restrictionson social relationships. Caste is hereditary, endogamous, usuallylocalized group having traditional association with an occupation,and a particular position in the local hierarchy of castes. Caste as atraditional system has the following characteristics:

a) Hierarchyb) Hereditary statusc) Traditional occupationd) Endogamye) Theory of pollutionf) Restrictions on social interaction and access to opportunitiesg) Castes are localized groups

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The caste system is in a hierarchical order with Brahmins atthe top followed by the Kshtriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The dalitsare placed at the bottom of the hierarchy outside the fourfoldsystem. The status is ascribed determined by birth. In the oldsystem every caste followed a certain occupation which washanded down from one generation to the next. Louis Dumontbelieves that the three characteristics of hierarchy, heredity andtraditional occupation are linked by religious orientation. These arenot strictly in terms of power relations or economic domination.Caste system follows endogamy where individuals marry within thecaste and in the past intercaste marriages were forbidden.Relations between castes were traditionally determined by theconcepts of purity and pollution which asserted that lower castesare polluting to the higher castes. Lower castes were denied manyopportunities such as access to public places, schools. Restrictionswere placed on their movements as even their shadows used to beconsidered polluting.

While the above characteristics are attributed to castesystem in general, the ground reality states that the actualfunctional units are the subcastes. Ghurye (1932) believed thatalthough it is the caste which is recognized by the society at large,it is the subcaste which is considered more relevant by theparticular caste and the individual.

However today with industrialization, urbanization andmodernization traditional caste system has weakened though it isused very often to meet political ends

Class system refers to the classification of people based ontheir economic positions in society. Classes began to emerge asindividuals started amassing wealth; social classes are not rigidlydefined like estates and castes. It is an open system with increasedsocial mobility. Though individuals born in wealthy families andinfluential families have better access to resources, class system isbased more on achievement than birth; the status is achieved thanascribed. Sociologists rely on income, wealth, level of education,type of occupation, material possession and lifestyle to classifypeople into classes.

Stratification can also be based on gender. Historicallywomen all across the globe have been accorded inferior position incomparison to men. Men have had and continue to have morephysical and social power and status than women in the publicsphere. Men hold public office, create laws and rules, define societyand according to feminists also control women. Though strideshave been made towards gender equality the position of womenstill remains inferior. Much of the inequalities in the public andprivate sphere are due to sexism- prejudice and discrimination

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because of gender. Fundamental to sexism is the assumption thatmen are superior to women. Sexism has negative consequencesfor women and has caused them to avoid pursuing successfulcareers typically described as masculine. Sexism producesinequality between the genders particularly in the form ofdiscrimination. Inequality and discrimination is found in the areas ofeducation, work and politics.

Gordon Marshal ‘Dictionary of Sociology’ defines agestratification as system of inequalities linked to age. It refers to thesocial ranking of individuals at different stages in their lives. Agestratification separates people into three primary groups accordingto their age; the young, the old and the rest. There is unequaldistribution of wealth, power and privileges among people atdifferent stages in the life course. In Western societies, forexample, both the old and the young are perceived and treated asrelatively incompetent and excluded from much social life. Agestratification based on ascribed status leads to inequality. Oursociety places an enormous value on a person's perceived age,with major handicaps given to the very young and to the very old.The very young are either not physically or mentally capable ofperforming the required task, and the same is true for the elderly.Since society requires that people be able to perform some level ofproductive activity, those that cannot are viewed as a burden on thesystem.

8.2.2 Functions of stratification:

a) Stratification constitutes a means of society’s getting someof its essential jobs done by distributing different amounts ofprestige and privilege to various strata.

b) It regulates and controls human relationships in society.Prescribed roles and role expectation norms and standardsof behaviour are involved in relationships with each stratum.Stratification regulates and controls individual and grouprelationships and participation. Inequality of opportunity ornon availability of facilities gives advantages to those inhigher strata and deprives those belonging to the lowerstrata thus regulating participation.

c) Stratification in society has strong integrative functions,serving to coordinate and harmonise units within the socialstructure.

d) Stratification of society categorizes people into differentstrata simplifying his relations with other people.

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Check your progress:

a) What is the meaning of social institution?b) Discuss the systems of stratification?c) Bring out the functionality of social stratification.

8.3 RELIGION

There is nothing in the world which has been the object ofsuch deep reverence and the centre of such severe criticism asreligion; it has been equated with salvation and characterized asthe opiate of the people. The sociologist is concerned with thefunctions, social foundations and consequences of religion ratherthan the truth or falsity of any given religion. The sociologist studiesthe effect of religious beliefs and practices on the social and culturalsystems, socialization process and personality development. Theyare concerned with the ways in which society and religion interactand the effect it has on the individual.

It is very difficult to arrive at a consensus of definition ofreligion. According to Durkheim religion is a unified system ofbeliefs and practices relative to sacred things, uniting into a single,moral community all those who adhere to those beliefs andpractices. In sociological terms religion is a system of beliefs,practices, symbols and rituals that somehow relate to thecommunity’s orientation to the supernatural or the life beyond.Religion entails a form of worship, obedience to divinecommandments and a concern with the transcendental realms thatare beyond the rational and empirical.

8.3.1 Elements of religion

Members of a religion share a set of beliefs, system ofphilosophy, forms of rituals and some type of organization. Anyproposition about an aspect of the universe that is accepted as truemay be called belief. Religion is founded on many beliefs that arenot universal. Based on belief of the members religion can beclassified into monotheistic- belief in one god and polytheistic –belief in myriad forms of gods who preside over numerous forces ofnature. The creation of the sacred is another important element ofreligion. Myths, legends, sacred texts, symbols such as trishul,

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beads, fire, cross etc. provide the framework of knowledge withinwhich the supernatural and the phenomenon outside the ordinaryexperience become meaningful to the believers. The practice ofevery religion involves a variety of rituals. Members of mostreligions have a sense of community in that their beliefs, rituals andpractices unite them into a common fold. Religion consists of asocial form with networks of institutional arrangements and statusrole (priests, temples, monks, churches, shrines, monasteries).Religion involves a system of ritual including festivals, ceremonies,prayers, sacrifices, fasts etc, congregation which includesmeetings; satsangs etc. Religion also involves an expressiveculture- particularly visual and performing arts - including singing,dancing, chanting, processions, trance etc.

8.3.2 Types of religious organization

8.3.2.1 Church

Church is a type of religious organization that is wellintegrated into the larger society with well established rules anddoctrines - a formal organization with a hierarchy of officials whoseleaders are formally trained and ordained. Though it appointspeople from all strata; in practice higher status groups are usuallyoverrepresented. Church members conceive of god in highlyintellectual terms and favour abstract moral standards over specificrules for day to day living. By teaching morality in abstract termschurch leaders avoid controversy. A church may operate with orapart from the state. It identifies with the state and is integrated withthe social, political and educational functions. A church generallyaccepts the norms and values of the society and frequently regardsitself as the guardian of the established social order. A state churchis formally allied with the state whereas a denomination is a churchindependent of the state and the one that recognizes religiouspluralism.

8.3.2.2 Sect

A sect is an exclusive, highly cohesive group of believerswho strictly adhere to a religious doctrine and reject many beliefsand practices of the general society and replace them with beliefsand practices which may appear strange to the non believer. As aresult, sects are, in Peter Berger’s words, ‘in tension with the largersociety and closed against it’. Sects are religious organizations thatstand apart from the larger society. Membership into the sect isvoluntary and is not universal in its appeal but is an exclusivegroup. A sect makes no effort to influence the religious life of thoseoutside its fold. As a voluntary group, membership is restricted tothose who are qualified to be its members. Members often join inthrough conversion and personal transformation. Sect members

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have rigid religious convictions and unconventional beliefs andforms of worship and deny the belief of other. They usually stressequalitarian ideals among its members as new converts and oldmembers are treated with equal respect. They also expect activeparticipation, strict conformity and personal commitment on the partof their members. It is either indifferent or hostile to the state andthe larger society and often upholds visions of an alternativesociety. They usually spring from the lower classes anddisadvantaged people who feel oppressed by the state and society.In organizational terms they are less formal than churches, they arespontaneous and emotional in worship enjoying personalexperience. In a sect, charisma is attached to the religious leaderwhereas in organized church it is attached to the office.

8.3.2.3 Cult

A cult is a religious organization often inspired by acharismatic leader and largely outside a society’s cultural tradition.People voluntarily follow a leader who preaches new beliefs andpractices. Since many cults hold unconventional doctrines thatadhere to different lifestyles, they evoke negative sentiments in thepopular mind. Cults are often at odds with the larger society andtheir unconventional beliefs often lead to the popular view of thembeing deviants and members dismissed as being crazy. Howeverthere is nothing intrinsically wrong with cults. In fact several of theorganized religion began as cults. Cults often last only as long astheir leader. There were several millenarian cults that appeared atthe end of the twentieth century. These groups believed that theend of the world was near and prepared them to be saved by godas select group of faithful. The Moonies, People’s Temple, JesusPeople, Scientology, Rajneeshis and Ananda Margin are oftencalled cults. Cults have often attracted controversies because oftheir alleged techniques of recruitment, lifestyles, and values whichare perceived to run counter to those of the larger society. Many ofthe cults have been accused of kidnapping, brainwashing, usinghypnosis and other mind controlling techniques and drugs. Theyhave also been charged with manipulation of the young, immoralityand exploitation. Sociologists of religion view cult formation as aresponse to utilitarian individualism and materialism of modernconsumer culture which is characterized by impersonality andmoral ambiguity. They think of it as a quest for new identity orconscious reformation.

8.3.3 Functions of religion:

Religion in terms of functional theory serves certain importantfunctions. Durkheim pointed out three major functions of religion forthe operation of the society. These are:

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a) Religion unites people through symbolism, values andnorms. Religious thought and ritual establish rules of fairplay, making social life orderly

b) Every society uses religious ideas to promote conformity. Itsanctifies norms and values of an established society,maintaining the dominance of group goals over individualwishes.

c) Religious beliefs offer the comforting sense. Religion throughits various ceremonies of worship provides emotional groundand identity amid uncertainties and impossibilities of humancondition.

Religion though is highly personal affair it has a socialaspect and social role. According to Arnold Green, religion helps inrationalizing individual suffering. Religion serves to soothe theemotions of humans in the face of disappointment and sufferings.Religion also plays a role in enhancing self importance andcontributes to the integration of one’s personality. Religion is alsothe source of social cohesion and social control as well. Religion isan integrating and unifying force in human society however it canalso be dysfunctional that can keep humans in degradingsubjection what Marx referred to as ‘ religion is the opiate of themasses’.

In spite of its various disservices the fact that religion hascontinued for centuries together is the proof of its value.

Check your progress:

a) What are the different elements of religion?b) Discuss the types of religious organisation?c) What are the functions of religion?

8.4 SUMMARY

Social institutions are the major spheres of social life orsocietal subsystems, organized to meet human needs. Socialstratification is a system by which a society ranks categories ofpeople in a hierarchy. The 3 commonly recognized systems ofstratification are estate, caste and class. Stratification can be on thebasis of wealth, power, status, education, ritualistic status, age andgender. It can serve functional purpose at the same time can be

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highly dysfunctional and exploitative. Religion as a social institutionplays an important role in the life of an individual. Sociologist studyhow religion is linked to other social patterns but make no claimsabout the truth of any religious belief. It serves integrative functionspromoting social solidarity; however it can also make people overdependent and perpetuate inequalities in the society. Cults, sectsand church are the different forms of religious organizations.

References:

Abraham, F, 2010, Contemporary Sociology: An Introduction toconcepts and theories, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Bhushan, V, Sachdev D R, Introduction to Sociology, Kitab Mahal.

Giddens, A, 2010, 6th edition, Sociology, Polity Press

Haralambos, M and Heald, 2009, Sociology: Themes andPerspectives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi

Henslin, James M, 2009, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-EarthApproach, Allyn & Bacon and Pearson Custom Publishing.

Macionis J, 2005, Sociology, Prentice Hall

Marshall G, Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford University Press, NewDelhi.

Questions:

Q1 What is social stratification? Bring out the functionality ofstratification.

Q2 Examine the significance of religion as a social institution.Q3 Examine the different types of state.Q4 What is sociology of religion? Explain the concept of church,

sect and cult.Q5 Write short notes on:

a) Caste and classb) Elements of religionc) Gender and age as forms of social stratification.

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9

POLITICAL INSTITUTION

Unit structure:

9.0 Objectives

9.1 Political Institution

9.1.1 State and government

9.1.2 Functions of the state

9.1.3 Types of state

9.2 Economic institutions

9.2.1 Capitalism

9.2.2 Socialism

9.2.3 Informal economies

9.3 Summary

9.0 OBJECTIVES:

To understand the political institution and types of state. To understand the economic institutions of capitalism, socialism

and informal economy.

9.1 POLITICAL INSTITUTION

Every society has an order to which people adhere and thissystem ensures obedience or conformity to the social order.Political institution is the social institution that distributes power,sets a society’s agenda and makes decisions. In traditionalsocieties tribal chiefs, elders and shamans exercised control. Inlarge and complex societies political authority has to be organizedand structured. In today’s world political and economic systems areintertwined. In both industrialized and developing societies,governments play a major role in shaping the economy.

9.1.1 State and government

The state is a form of political entity by which a society is organizedunder an agency of government which claims legitimate

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sovereignty over specified geographical area and has the monopolyof physical force. The features of state are:

a) It is organized under a government that exercises authorityover its subjects with the legitimate monopoly of physicalforce, to imprison and even executes members within itsjurisdiction.

b) The state exercises its political authority throughgovernments at the national, state and local levels.

A government is an agency of the state, a complex legalsystem that has the power and authority to carry out the functionsof the state. It is a formal organization that directs the political life ofa society. In modern democracies, governments formed by politicalparties in power formulate policies, initiate laws, and launchprogrammes. The government consists of the legislature, executiveand judiciary. The legislature is responsible for enacting laws thatgovern the behaviour of all individuals and institutions. Theexecutive formulates policies and programmes and administers thecountry in accordance with the laws. The judiciary interprets thelaws and safeguards the rights of all citizens.

9.1.2 Functions of the state

Modern nation states perform a wide variety of functions.

Social control: The state has the authority to enact and enforcelaws. The state prescribes certain forms of behaviour and prohibitscertain other behaviours that disrupt the social order; that areclearly specified. It is the responsibility of the state that along withmaking good laws it is the also responsible for maintaining law andorder, punishing criminals and protecting law abiding citizens. Thepolice and courts are established to carry out the responsibility ofmaintaining law and order.

Defence: It is the prime responsibility of the state to protect itscitizens against external aggression and threat. Modern nationstates maintain standing armies and a large portion of nationalbudget is utilized for defence purposes. The soldiers trained andequipped for defence is also employed for maintaining order incase of emergency domestic situations. However most democraticnations maintain a definite functional separation between socialcontrol and defence responsibilities of the state.

Welfare: The state initiates policies and programmes for thewelfare of its citizens. Welfare measures would include health,education, employment, public services and retirement benefits.Equity, elimination of poverty, promotion of social justice, andcultural development are among the goals embraced by modern

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nation states. Every state is expected to ensure economic stabilityand general social welfare.

9.1.3 Types of state

Autocracy:

Autocracy is defined in Modern Dictionary of Sociology as ‘aform of government in which ultimate authority resides in oneperson who occupies the top position in a hierarchy of power andfrom whom authority descends to the bottom of the hierarchy’. It isa type of political system in which a single family rules fromgeneration to generation. The autocrat may be a monarch whoinherited the position or a dictator who captured power in coupd’état. The autocrat is not accountable for his actions to hissubordinates or subjects. An autocracy is authoritarian but nottotalitarian. In autocracy power and authority is vested in a singleindividual. Military dictatorships and absolute monarchies areexamples of autocracies. With industrialization monarchy isgradually replaced by elected officials. All the European nationswhere monarchs remain are constitutional monarchies wheremonarchs are only symbolic heads of state with actual governingdone by elected officials.

Totalitarianism

In Totalitarianism the state rather than the individual issupreme; the monopoly of power is vested in a party or a group ofruling elites. It is the most intensely controlled political form; ahighly centralized political system that regulates people’s life. Thestate controls and regulates all phases of life, perpetuates itspower, and arbitrarily decides what is best for its citizens. Thecentralized system of authority discourages any form of realpolitical participation. Although totalitarian governments claim torepresent the will of the people most seek to bend people to the willof the government. Such governments have total concentration ofpower allowing no organized opposition. The population is deniedthe right to assemble for political purposes and also denied accessto information. With the development of modern technologies andsurveillance systems, totalitarian governments monitor everyaspect of the citizens’ life. Totalitarian states enforce strictconformity to state policies and political ideology. Examples oftotalitarianism would be modern North Korea, Taliban.

Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power isexercised by the people as a whole. It is the government of thepeople, by the people and for the people. It gives power to the

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people as a whole. A system of representative democracy putsauthority in the hands of the elected leaders. All moderndemocracies are representative democracies in which people electtheir representatives to form a government on their behalf. An idealsystem of democracy is based on universal suffrage which allowsall citizens of a certain age to exercise their right to vote. Theeffectiveness of the democracy depends on an enlightenedelectorate; people have to be politically conscious and active in thedemocratic process. Elected representatives formulate the budget,policies and programmes and carry out the programmes through anetwork of appointed officials. Modern nation states preferdemocratic forms of government which recognize the sovereignty ofthe people.

Check your progress:

1) What is the difference between state and government?2) Examine the various types of state.3) Explain the functions of state.

9.2 ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS:

The economy is the social institution that organizes asociety’s production, distribution and consumption of goods andservices. Economic activity deals with goods and services neededfor the satisfaction of human wants. It involves land, capital, labourand entrepreneurship.

The type of economy often depends upon the political formof government. How does the state control the flow of money,goods and services? What is the status of private property? What isthe role of free market in the economic system? are the questionsthat illustrate the relationship between the state and economy. Twogeneral economic models are capitalism and socialism.

9.2.1 Capitalism

It is an economic system that is based on private ownership ofthe means of production and distribution in which individuals arefree to accumulate and invest capital. The state only plays a minor

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role in the marketplace, mainly controlling monopoly andexploitation. Features of capitalism are:

a) Capitalist system operates on the basis of credit, freecontract and free labour market.

b) Private ownership of property is the essence of capitalism

c) It involves freedom of choice, the right to own, rent, sell,trade, or give away the property.

d) It encourages the accumulation of private property andconsiders the profit motive natural, simple a matter of doingbusiness.

e) It is based on unregulated competition which allows themarket forces to determine what is produced, how much isproduced and at what price.

f) There is total freedom from government interference inbusiness or commerce. A purely capitalist economy is a freemarket system with no government interference; calledlaissez- faire economy from the French words meaning toleave alone. Adam Smith, the Scott Philosopher stated that afreely competitive economy regulates itself by the invisiblehand of the laws of supply and demand.

9.2.2 Socialism

It is an economic system in which the state has collectiveownership of the means of production and distribution. In socialismthe natural resources and the means of producing goods andservices are collectively owned. The features of socialism are:

a) It limits the rights to public property, especially property usedto generate income. The state owns the land as well as otherresources and operates businesses.

b) Profit is no longer the ultimate goal of economic activity butpublic good is. Individuals are urged to work for the commongood of all.

c) There is a central planning agency that sets the goals andpriorities. Production of goods as well as services and theentire market economy is oriented towards meeting thepublic needs rather than profit making.

d) Socialism advocates overall welfare of the populationthrough extensive public assistance programme.

9.2.3 Informal economies

These are economic activities involving income unreportedto the government as required by law. Also known as underground

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economy, black economy, informal sector includes self employedpersons, vegetable vendors, rickshaw pullers, domestic servantsetc. A large section of many economies constitutes of the informalsector. E.g. India- about 92% of the people is involved in informalsector contributing to the economy of the country. The informalsector is characterized by ease of entry, autonomy and flexibility,small scale of operation and family ownership of enterprise. Theinformal sector lacks government recognition and support. Theorganized capital market, bank finance, foreign technology,protection from competition etc is not available to informal sectorenterprises. The informal economies function in the unprotectedlabour market. Workers in the informal sector can be classified intohome based workers (rural artisans), self employed (street vendors,hawkers), piece rate workers and time wage workers (domesticservants, construction workers). Though unregulated andunprotected the informal sector today is a source of employment fora very large number of people contributing significantly to the totaloutput of the economy.

Check your progress:

1) Explain the economic system of capitalism?2) Examine the economic model of socialism.3) Write a note on informal economy.

9.4 SUMMARY

Political institution is the major institution by which societydistributes power and organizes decision making. Autocracy,totalitarianism and democracy are the main types of states. Thetype of economy often depends on the political form of government.Generally speaking economy may be classified into capitalism,socialism and informal economy.

Bibliography:

Abraham F, 2010, Contemporary Sociology: An Introduction toconcepts and theories, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Bhushan V, Sachdev D R, Introduction to Sociology, Kitab Mahal.

Giddens A, 2010, 6th edition, Sociology, Polity Press

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Haralambos M and Heald, 2009, Sociology: Themes andPerspectives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi

Macionis J, 2005, Sociology, Prentice Hall

Marshall G, Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford University Press, NewDelhi.

Questions:

Q1 What is the difference between state and government? Whatare the different types of state?

Q2 How is the economic and political institution interrelated?Examine economic institution of capitalism.

Q3 What is the relationship between economic and politicalinstitution. Examine the economic institution of socialism.

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10

SOCIALIZATION

Unit Structure

10.0 Objectives

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Definition and significance

10.3 Socialization as a process

10.4 Summary

10.5 Reference

10.0 OBJECTIVES

To acquaint the students with the meaning and definition ofSocialization

To enable students to understand significance of socialization. To familiarize students the process of socialization.

10.1 INTRODUCTION

Human beings are social animals and they learn the culturaland behavioural patterns of the group they belong too. The Chineseand Japanese children learn to eat with chopsticks so skillfully thatthey can pick up not only rice but even single peanut. Children withsome other part of the world use their hands or use a folk n knife toeat. How do we explain such variations? These phenomena canonly be explained by socialization, the process by which individualslearn the culture of their society. Socialization is a life long processwhich enables the individual to learn the content of her/his cultureand the many behavioural patterns of the group to which s/hebelongs.

10.2 DEFINITION AND SIGNIFICANCE

Definition :The new generation learns the basic essentials of culture

and survives in the society. The process by which the new bornchild learns to satisfy its basic needs, prepares himself for differentroles at any stage in society is called as socialization. The human

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infant comes into the world a biological organism with animalneeds. He/she is gradually moulded into a social being and learnssocial ways of acting and feeling. Without this process of mouldingsociety cannot continue itself, nor could culture exist, and theindividual cannot become a person. Socialization is the process bymeans of which the human infant learns to become a functioningand participating member of the society or group. It is a life longprocess which extends from cradle to grave. The socialdevelopment is a gradual but continuous process which passesthrough different stages.

According to Anthony Giddens, “Socialization is process bywhich the helpless infant gradually becomes self aware,knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of culture into which heor she is born.” The process of socialization brings about a changein the individual personality as the new generation learnsappropriate patterns of behaviour, develops ability to understandvarious social responsibilities and social obligations according tothe expectations of society. Therefore the socialization is a processof training individual according to the norms of society. According toAnderson and Parker, “Socialization is a learning process ofdevelopment of habits, attitudes and traits that differentiateindividual from one another.” According to Lundberg, “Socializationis a process of interaction where the individual learns habits, skills,beliefs and standard of judgments which are necessary for effectiveparticipation at social groups and communities.”

Socialization provides children the experience of living andinteracting with each other which helps the individual to grow as ahuman being or it would be difficult to differentiate them withanimals. Children learn by imitating and observing, thereforesocialization is concerned to be a two way process which involvesobservation and response. Every new born infant is considered tobe a bundle of flesh that needs to be moulded in a specific way tobe an accepted member. As the child grows, s/he becomesdisciplined and matured. In this way socialization is a life longprocess.

Significance :Socialization is significant to individuals and society in many

ways. Firstly, it is through the process of Socialization, as Otite andOgionwo (1979) have rightly argued, that human beings who arebiological beings become socially human. Socialization ensures thecontinuity of society or it persistence over time due to inculcationinto its members of the essential values and norms necessary forits survival and development. It is through Socialization thatindividuals and groups are assigned specific roles e.g., men andwomen in the society and they will continue to perform their variousresponsibilities or duties. It further serves to standardize the

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acceptable patterns of behaviours in most societies and among theindividuals and corporate groups in existence.

Socialization process also serves the function of providingthe members of society with appropriate skills and knowledge forperforming future roles e.g., training of people in formal institutesuch as schools, colleges, vocational institutions etc. it prepares theindividual for the role s/he have to play in society and the statusthey occupy with proper belief, attitudes, norms, values, skills andknowledge. New members of the society are often socialized intoaccepting the moral code of society, the basis upon which thesociety survives; without moral regulation, most societies are likelyto fall apart. Finally, it is through Socialization that every member ofthe society is provided with his or her personality. It should,however, be noted that consequences of the Socialization processmay also prevail resulting in deviant behaviours, includingcriminality, among individuals and groups in society. Socializationtransmits the heritage from generation to generations whichensures persistence and continuity.

10.3 THE PROCESS OF SOCIALIZATION

The social order is maintained largely by socialization.Unless the individuals behave in accordance with the norms of thegroup, it is going to disintegrate. It is said that the process ofsocialization begins long before a child is born. The parents’courtship, marital selection, customs concerning pregnancy andchild birth and the whole system of cultural practices surroundingthe family are important for the child’s growth.

Direct socialization begins after birth. Reflexes are theautomatic and rigid response of the organism to a given stimulus.They are unlearnt and are not modifiable. They set limits on whatan organism can do. But they are the base on which the process ofdirect socialization begins.

Instincts are said to have some influence on humanbehaviour. For example, Freud is of the opinion that the sex instinctis the source of all human endeavours. The human infant at birthdoes not have complete instincts but only some elements of them,such as reflexes and urges. Urge provides a firm ground forexplaining human behaviour. If human needs are not satisfied, itleads to tension until it encounters a stimulus capable of relievingthe tension. The urge is thus a dynamic force behind behaviour, itprovides a starting point for the process of socialization. Theprocess of socialization involves different stages. They are thefollowing-

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a) ImitationImitation is copying by an individual of the actions of another.

G.H Mead defines it as ‘self-conscious assumption of another’sacts or roles’. Thus when the child attempts to walk impressivelylike the father swinging a stick and wearing spectacles, he/she isimitating. Imitation can be conscious or unconscious. In imitationthe person imitating performs exactly the same activity as the onewho is imitated. It is the main factor in the process of socialization.Through it the child leans many social behavioural patterns. Thechild as compared to the adult possesses the greatest capacity forimitation. Language and pronunciation are acquired by the childonly through imitation. It is because of the tendency to imitate thatchildren are so attuned to the influence of their parents and friendswhose behaviour they imitate.

b) SuggestionSuggestion is the process of communicating information

which has not logical or self-evident basis. It is devoid of rationalpersuasion. It may be conveyed through language, pictures orsome similar medium. Suggestion influences not only behaviourwith others but also one’s own private and individual behaviour. Intrade, industry, politics, education and every other field peoplemake use of suggestion to have their ideas and notions acceptedby other people and to make them behave accordingly. Advertisingis based on the idea of suggestion. Children are more influenced bysuggestion than adults.c) Identification

In the early age, the child cannot make a difference betweenhis/her own organism and the environment. Most of their actionsare random. As they grow in age, they come to know of the natureof things which satisfy their needs. Such things become the objectsof their identification. Thus the toys with which they play, thepicture-book which they enjoy looking at, the mothers who feedthem etc become objects of identification.

d) LanguageIt is the medium of social interaction. In the beginning the

child does not know how to speak. At first the child utters somerandom syllables which have no meaning. Gradually the childlearns by hearing the parents and all those with whom he isassociated with. The mother tongue is learnt this moulds thepersonality of the individual from infancy.

10.4 SUMMARY

Socialization is a life long process which enables the child tolearn the content of his culture and the many behavioural patternsof the group to which s/he belongs. The process and effects of

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socialization are most pronounced in early childhood when thefamily consciously or unconsciously teaches the child certain typesof behaviour as well as beliefs. Regardless of where we live, we areall products of socialization. Without this process of mouldingsociety cannot continue itself, nor could culture exist, and theindividual cannot become a person. Socialization is the process bymeans of which the human infant learns to become a functioningand participating member of the society or group.

Check your Progress1. Define socialization

2. Discuss the process of socialization

3. Explain the meaning of socialization.

10.5 REFERENCES

1.Lam Shaffer, 1972.Introduction to Sociology, New York: W.W. Norton.

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11

AGENCIES OF SOCIALIZATION

Unit Structure

11.0 Objectives

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Agencies of socialization

11.3 Stages in socialization

11.4 Summary

11.5 Reference

11.0 OBJECTIVES

To acquaint the students with the agents of Socialization To enable students to understand the stages in socialization. To familiarize students the process growth.

11.1 INTRODUCTION

Individuals acquire the culture of their society throughparticipation in a variety of groups and institutions. From their familythe child learns the first words of language, religion and severalother roles. But the family cannot teach everything, at every stageof life we learn rules and behavioural patterns as we interact withothers. The primary agents of socialization are the family, peergroup, school and mass media.

11.2 AGENCIES OF SOCIALIZATION

Family :The family is a permanent, the most complete and primary

institution that looks after the needs of an individual. It is the familywhere the child comes in contact with human beings specially themother and the child has physical and social contact. It is the groupinto which the child is born. Being the first group which hasinfluence over the individual, the child learns his first lessons insocialization from the family. From his parents s/he learns her/hisspeech and language. S/He learns respect for persons in authority.

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The child gets his first lessons in co-operation, tolerance, love andaffection in the family. The family has tremendous influence on thecharacter and morality of the person.

The self concept of an individual depends to a large extendon one’s family. The child develops his sense of self throughobserving the reactions of his parents. He learns to define himselfas his parents define him. The family acts as a mediator betweenthe individual and the other agencies of socialization. Even thoughthere are other agencies like school, work place, media etc; it is thefamily that determines how the individual comes to be influenced bythese agencies. For e.g. which school the child goes to, whichfriends he has contacts with etc…

Peer Groups :Peer group refers to people of almost the same who share

similar interests. They also help in the development of personality.The first peer group is the neighbourhood play group; children whohang out together in the neighbourhood and play different games.They begin to spend more time together than in their own families.They play games like cricket together, or just hang out.Participation in such groups gives the child important social identitysuch as a team player, leader, or shy person etc. The firstneighbourhood playgroups are breeding grounds for leaders.Children also learn the rules of the game here, their first exposureto rules of the society.

Later in life, peer groups become more influential in schooland the workplace. Unlike the neighbourhood playgroups, in theschool the child gets to choose his own friends. Friends my bechosen on the basis of physical attraction, common interests, orshared backgrounds. They share similar interests in sports, music,movies, fashion, and even ideologies. The first taste of alcohol orthe first act of smoking may be peer-induced. Young adults whogrow up in crime-ridden localities are drawn into deviantsubcultures.

The influence of the peer group continues in the workplace.The office norm, or the unwritten rules of behaviour, is a product ofpeer socialization. For example, in an industry or in a governmentoffice, there is often this shared understanding that a honest day'swork is not necessary, and the peers frown upon people who areeager to complete the task in a timely fashion. At the same timefriends in the workplace can help individuals tide over many lifecrises such as domestic problems, divorce, accidents, and death.

The School :The school is considered to be an important formal setting

where the child spends many hours together with friends and

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teachers. The school is the first formal agency which exposes thechild to the rules of the larger society. Here the child learns torecognize and obey rules, practice skills, and relate to people inpositions of authority. Children learn to behave in group settings, sitquietly and listen to teachers, participate in social events, andaccept responsibilities. The school plays the most important role inthe development of social and intellectual skills and the reception ofsociety’s cultural heritage. It is not only responsible for reading,writing, and arithmetic, but for the transmission of the accumulatedsocial heritage of the community. Education refines social skills,and frequent interaction with peers and teachers helps in theformation of a healthy social identity. The school also teaches civicsense, patriotism, and pride in the nation's shared heritage. Aboveall, education is supposed to foster critical thinking so thatindividuals can think for themselves and become creative andproductive members of the society.

Mass Media :In the present-day society, mass media play a significant,

although subtle role in the socialization process. Media impartsinformation through audio visual and print. Mass media refers to allinstruments of communication such as television, radio,newspapers, magazines, movies, and records. Television hasbecome by far the most influential medium in recent years. Indiahas come a long way from the days of the government controlledsingle-channel television. With the growth of the cable industry andnumerous private television channels, people have a choice. Notonly is there a wide range of programmes available, but there isalso an instant transmission of images, events, styles and fashionsfrom around the world. Young people are now able to enjoyWestern music, dance, fashion and fast food, and adopt types ofbehaviour patterns. There are also educational channels such asDiscovery, National Geographic, and History, which inform,entertain and truly instruct. However, there is considerablecontroversy over what some people call 'cultural pollution', which isthe result of the 'pernicious' influence of the West. Much of thecontroversy is the result of stereotypes and the comparison of our'ideal' culture with West's 'real' culture.

It is possible that many people watch too much televisionand that they devote too little to reading. Once upon a time, goodbooks were the only form of entertainment. Now we can watchtelevision any time of the day or night. Studies in USA show thatpre-schoolers and young children spend almost one-third of the dayin front of the television. Studies have also shown that exposure toviolence in the media can contribute to aggressive behaviour,insensitivity to violence. In India, parents are more likely to regulatechildren's viewing of television and violent movies. However, it will

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be worthwhile to undertake some extensive research on the impactof certain television programmes on young children.

We also depend on other agents of mass media such asnewspapers and journals to transmit enormous amounts ofinformation. There are magazines that cater to every conceivableinterest – women, young adults, fashion, film industry, sports,health and fitness, news stories, politics, occupations andprofessions, music and religion. Then there are, of course, thebooks – fiction, biographies, and social commentaries – whichconvey a host of ideas. In a sense, every book is a powerfulinstrument of socialization.

Once the individual completes his teenage, he enters thelong phase of adulthood. The young adult is physically mature andsocially responsible. His personality is integrated. He isindependent and is able to make decisions for himself. He has theknowledge and skills necessary for social living and environmentalmastery. Early adulthood is characterized by maximum physicaland mental capacity. Speed of response and work capacity is attheir best during this period. Training for a job usually occurs duringthis period. The young adult usually concentrates his attention onjob success and advancement. There is a strong emphasis on workachievements in these years.

Old age, age of retirement, is accompanied by physicalmental and social changes. There are important changes in thesocial roles of an individual. It is at this age period that we findsigns of gradual withdrawal from active social involvements.

Workplace :As the individual grows into an adult person, work becomes

part of life. Occupation brings about reality in front of the person asthe individual earns for survival to fulfill his ambition. Occupationalsocialization deals with the people as well as with the field.Personal goals and basic needs are fulfilled. The individual learnsto cooperate, adjust with others at the work place. Disciplinecontinues and if s/he violates the rules it may cost the loss of job.

11.3 STAGES IN SOCIALIZATION

The Development of the Self continues throughout our liveswhich helps the individual to grow into an adult person and be anaccepted member of the society. Values, norms, beliefs are taughtto the individual so that the person follows the norms of the society.

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An important aspect in the process of socialization is thedevelopment of the self. The development of the self concept takesplace through the child’s interaction with the social world and is theheart of socialization. The self is essentially an individual’sawareness of his or her physical and social identity. The self maybe divided into two – the physical or existential self and the socialor categorical. The first stage in the development of the selfconcept is the development of the existential self. For the infant thefirst step in developing a self concept is to understand that he isseparate and distinct entity. once this is process is over, theprocess of defining the social self begins, process that continuesover one’s entire life span. This is sometimes referred to ascategorical self because the definition takes form of placing one selfin a wide range of categories.

Two theorists who have made considerable contribution tothe understanding of self are C.H. Cooley and G.H. Mead.

C.H Cooley- ‘Looking Glass Self’C.H. Cooley stressed the role of primary groups and social

interaction in the development of self. According to him the selfdevelops within the context of social relationships “there is nosense of ‘I’……. without its correlative sense of ‘you’, ‘he’ or‘they’…” according to Cooley one discovers oneself throughreactions of others to him. The self concept is gained from thereactions of parents and later modified by the reactions of otherindividuals. Murphy explains self as any individual who is known tohave his own identity and self image. The self of a person is whats/he consciously or unconsciously conceives her/himself to be.This concept of self is the combination of one’s attitude and thefeelings of others.

Cooley introduced the concept of ‘Looking glass self”- thereare three elements in the process of development of self:

(i) The imagination of our appearance to another person(ii) The imagination of his/her judgment of that appearance(iii) Some sort of self feeling such as pride or shame.

Explaining theses points we can understand that the way welook not only appeals to us but also provokes others to react. Thereactions can have a positive or negative reaction on ourbehaviour. Therefore this theory ‘Looking Glass Self’ is consideredto be important in the life of an individual.

G.H. Mead- ‘Development of Self’Development of Self according to G.H. Mead has described

as the passing of the individual through distinct stages and the selfemerges. He expressed the ‘double centre of gravity’ in his concept

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of the self, which he divided into ‘I’ and ‘Me’. ‘I’ is the creative,spontaneous, instinctive part of the self that has ideas andimagination, while ‘Me’ is the social self with its capacity to take therole of the other takes into account the reactions of others. Both ‘I’and ‘Me’ pulls one to behave in a particular way. Consciousness isa form of a conversation between the ‘I’ and ‘Me’.

According to Mead the development of self takes place in 3 stages:(i) The stage of developing self consciousness(ii) The play stage(iii) The game stage

In the first stage, the stage of developing self consciousnessis apparent in most children at the early childhood. It is the productof language learning and the social interactions that necessarilyaccompany it. In this stage he begins to become conscious of himin the same way that others are conscious of him. He becomes selfconscious through the use of language.

The play stage begins around the age of 3-5.During thisstage the child’s verbal ability increases and he or she engages in agreat deal of role playing. Children from 5-8 years of age spendmuch of their free time in imagination role playing of one kind oranother. Mother and father, teacher, soldier, policeman etc. are allcommon roles assumed by children in play. Children learn to dothings from this kind of activity – they learn to play the adult rolesaround them and they learn who they are by being who they arenot. Play is a significant preparation for the later life.

In the play stage the roles they play are free, independent ofeach other. In the next stage, game stage, the roles are related toeach other by rules that define how they are to be played. In themost simple and universal of all games- hide and seek- there areonly 2 related roles hider and seeker. There is no meaning in hidingif no one seeks or in seeking if no one hides. Thus in the games themeaning of one role lies solely in its relation to the other roles; ithas no meaning outside that relation. Sociologically, therefore, playis characterised by role playing, while games are characterised byposition enactment since the rules are the social norms of thegame. In this stage, the player in order to do his part, must know allthe roles of all other players and adjust his behaviour to the others.

Erving Goffman, a symbolic interactionist, argued thatidentities were the resources we ‘pick up and put down’ to negotiateeveryday life. For Goffman, individuals are like actors playing theroles on stage, such as teacher, student, etc…and we selfconsciously monitor our performances. Goffman recognized that,like actors, people have time off stage, when they are less

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obviously presenting an identity. So although they are performingsome roles there, they are doing so less self consciously.

The chief architect of the dramaturgical analysis is ErvingGoffman. The world is a theatre in which we are the actors. Thetheatre has a front region, where the performances are done and aback region, where rehearsals appear. At the back region, thebehavior and actions are less deliberate and there is lesspresentation of self, an individual’s effort to create specificimpressions in the minds of others.

He adds that it is through the impression managementtechnique that they present themselves on the stage. For eg:Waiters at expensive restaurants are acutely aware of being onstage and act in a dignified manner when they are at service. Oncein the kitchen, however, they don’t act in the same manner.

11.4 SUMMARY

The Development of the Self continues throughout our liveswhich helps the individual to grow into an adult person and be anaccepted member of the society. Values, norms, beliefs are taughtto the individual so that the person follows the norms of the society.Individuals acquire the culture of their society through participationin a variety of groups and institutions. From their family the childlearns the first words of language, religion and several other roles.But the family cannot teach everything, at every stage of life welearn rules and behavioural patterns as we interact with others.

Check your Progress1. Define socialization and explain the agents of socialization.2. Explain the development of Self according to Cooley3. Explain the development of Self according to Mead

11.5 REFERENCES

1. Erickson, E. 1963Childhood and Society, New York: W.W. Norton.

2. Freud, Sigmund. 1930Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works ofSigmund Freud, London: Hogarth Press.

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12

RESOCIALIZATION

Unit Structure

12.0 Objectives

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Resocialization

12.3 Gender socialization

12.4 Political socialization

12.5 Summary

12.6 Reference

12.0 OBJECTIVES

To acquaint the students with the concept of Resocialization To enable students to understand the concept of Gender

socialization. To familiarize students with political socialization.

12.1 INTRODUCTION

Socialization is a process that continues throughout the life,right from the cradle to the grave. Although the family peer group,school and ass media are the most important agents ofsocialization, we continue to learn standards of behaviour andbeliefs from a number of agencies.

12.2 RESOCIALIZATION

Resocialization is a sociological concept dealing with theprocess of mentally and emotionally "re-training" a person so thathe or she can operate in an environment other than that which heor she is accustomed to.

Key examples include the process of resocializing new recruitsinto the military so that they can operate as soldiers (or, in otherwords, as members of a cohesive unit) and the reverse process, in

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which those who have become accustomed to such roles return tosociety after military discharge.

The primary socialization received in childhood is just one partof the lifelong socialization process. Adults go through a process ofresocialization, which is the learning of new norms and values thatoccurs when they join a new group or when life circumstanceschange dramatically. Learning new norms and values enablespeople to adapt, though newly learned things may contradict whatwas previously learned.

Though senility and certain diseases associated with old agecan impair a person’s ability to learn and adapt to new situations,many adults experience change throughout life. A new job, the lossof friends or a spouse, children leaving home, and retirement are allmilestones that require resocialization.

Most instances of resocialization are mild modifications, suchas adapting to a new work environment. Extreme forms of theprocess can include joining the military, going to prison, orotherwise separating from mainstream society.

The workplace is an agent of socialization—in this case,resocialization. A new job brings with it new norms and values,including the following:1. What papers to fill out2. What equipment to use3. What tasks to complete and when to complete them4. When to arrive at work5. When to take a break6. When to leave

The employing organization also has its own values. Thesocialization process involves learning how strictly the companyenforces work-related norms, such as whether it’s acceptable forpeople of different job levels to fraternize outside of working hours,or whether a very late arrival will incur some kind of punishment.During resocialization, people learn how to modify behavior to fitthe new situation.

Most people are socialized to think for themselves and maketheir own decisions about daily tasks. That changes when they areresocialized by what sociologist Erving Goffman labelled a totalinstitution. A total institution is an organization or setting that hasthe following characteristics:1. Residents are not free to leave.2. All actions are determined and monitored by authority

figures.3. Contact with outsiders is carefully controlled.

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4. The environment is highly standardized.5. Rules dictate when, where, and how members do things.6. Individuality is discouraged.

Examples of total institutions include prisons, mentalhospitals, and the military. In these total institutions, part of theresocialization process includes the loss of some decision-makingfreedom. The military decides what its soldiers wear, how theyspend their time, and when and what they eat. To be promoted to ahigher rank, they must demonstrate that they have beenresocialized and have successfully adapted to the military’s normsand values.

Sociologist Erving Goffman studied resocialization in mentalinstitutions. He characterized the mental institution as a totalinstitution—one in which virtually every aspect of the inmates’ liveswas controlled by the institution and calculated to serve theinstitution's goals. For example, the institution requires that patientscomply with certain regulations, even when compliance is notnecessarily in the best interest of the individual.

The goal of total institutions is resocialization which radicallyalters residents' personalities through deliberate manipulation oftheir environment. Resocialization is a two-part process. First, thestaff of the institution tries to erode the residents' identities andindependence.

Strategies to erode identities include forcing individuals tosurrender all personal possessions, get uniform haircuts and wearstandardized clothing. Independence is eroded by subjectingresidents to humiliating and degrading procedures. Examples arestrip searches, fingerprinting and assigning serial numbers or codenames to replace the residents' given names.

The second part of resocialization process involves thesystematic attempt to build a different personality or self. This isgenerally done through a system of rewards and punishments. Theprivilege of being allowed to read a book, watch television or makea phone call can be a powerful motivator for conformity. Conformityoccurs when individuals change their behaviour to fit in with theexpectations of an authority figure or the expectations of the largergroup.

No two people respond to resocialization programs in thesame manner. While some residents are found to be "rehabilitated",others might become bitter and hostile. As well, over a long periodof time, a strictly controlled environment can destroy a person'sability to make decisions and live independently. This is known asinstitutionalization, this negative outcome of total institution

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prevents an individual from ever functioning effectively in theoutside world again.

Resocialization is also evident in individuals who have neverbeen "socialized" in the first place, or who have not been requiredto behave socially for an extended period of time. Examples includeferal children (never socialized) or inmates who have been insolitary confinement.

Socialization is a lifelong process. Adult socialization oftenincludes learning new norms and values that are very different fromthose associated with the culture in which the person was raised.This process can be voluntary. Currently, joining the militaryqualifies as an example of voluntary resocialization. The norms andvalues associated with military life are different from thoseassociated with civilian life.

Goffman also developed the concept of dramaturgy, the ideathat life is like a never-ending play in which people are actors.Goffman believed that when we are born, we are thrust onto astage called everyday life, and that our socialization consists oflearning how to play our assigned roles from other people. Weenact our roles in the company of others, who are in turn enactingtheir roles in interaction with us. He believed that whatever we do,we are playing out a role on the stage of life.

12.3 GENDER SOCIALIZATION

A baby is born and the doctor looks at the proud parents orparent and says three simple words: "It's a boy," or "It's a girl!"Before a newborn child even takes his or her first breath of lifeoutside the mother's womb, he or she is distinguishable andcharacterized by gender. The baby is brought home and dressed inclothes that help friends, family and even strangers identify the sexof the child.

Baby boys are dressed in blue and baby girls are dressed inpink. The baby boy may be dressed in a blue jumpsuit with afootball or a baseball glove on it. The baby girl may wear a bow intheir hair and flowered pajamas. As the boy begins to grow, he isgiven a miniature basketball and a hoop to play with. The girl isgiven dolls and doll clothes to dress them up in. Even going further,eventually the boy may play with Legos and Lincoln Logs and thegirl gets a Play School oven and a plastic tea set with which to playhouse.

As illustrated in the not-so-fictional scenario above, gendersocialization begins very early in life. Society has accepted such

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stereotypical things as baby boy blue and baby girl pink to helpidentify the sex of a child. Heaven forbid the little Joey looks like agirl or baby Michelle is mistaken for a boy. Mothers and fathersmake it easy for everyone to distinguish their bundle of joy byutilizing the socially established gender stereotypes.

But where and how did these stereotypes come from?Unfortunately, there isn’t a definite answer to that question. Weseem to accept that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. Boysgenerally play with balls, toy trucks and building blocks whereasgirls spend their time with dolls, tea sets and stuffed animals. Butthese are the stereotypes that are influenced by the parents. Ababy child isn't concerned with his or her gender identity. As thechild gets older though, he or she will begin to develop an identityfor his or herself and establish a personality that reflects theirmasculinity or femininity.

Another aspect of everyday life that is highly influential ingender socialization is the media. What we see on television or atthe movies, what we read in the newspaper or in magazines, whatwe see on billboards or hear on the radio are all very significant onhow we form an opinion on gender identity. Media publishers havevery successfully learned to "play" to an audience and areextremely successful in communicating with the audience they wishto reach. Advertisers are the biggest example of this concept.Society is very apt in recognizing images seen in commercials andprinted ads and viewing them as socially acceptable behaviour.

For example, beer companies will target the twenty to thirtyyear old male audience and include scantily clad women enjoyingtheir favourite beers. Ironically, popular women's magazines alsouse beautiful women to promote cosmetics and beauty products.How often do you think people question the activities they seeportrayed in advertising and question them as to there validity?Probably not very often. It is much easier for society to just acceptthe images and not bother to take the time to analyze their bias anduntrue nature. It is this societal indifference that clouds the mindand allows the images to continue to influence what we believe tobe socially acceptable. And when society is presented withsomething or someone out of the ordinary which doesn't followwhat we deem to be correct, we rebel and try to modify it to oursocially acceptable standards.

Advertisers utilize female images to sell products. Societyassociates beauty with the female and we are more inclined to payattention to a beautiful woman presented to us on a screen or apage in a magazine. In a perfect world, there would be no genderdifferentiation, no racial tension and no "political incorrectness ".But we live in an imperfect world that is currently making a turn

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towards becoming more "PC" (politically correct). Fading away aresuch terms as fireman, stewardess, boyfriend and girlfriend,policeman and secretary. Now we are starting to use a moresocially acceptable language and replacing such terms with firefighter, flight attendant, domestic partner or significant other, policeofficer and administrative assistant. We are slowly, and do meanslowly, moving towards a non gender separated society. Eventuallywe may be able to control what we see and how we see it, but untilthen we must rely on ourselves to determine what is reality andwhat is part of a Dream World.

12.4 POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

The development of political socialization is the process bywhich people come to acquire political attitudes and values.Socialization in childhood has been extensively studied. Childrenacquire warm feelings towards authority figures that might appearin fairy stories such as that of queens and kings.

It is claimed that political socialization as a concept issomewhat new. Almond and Verba who studied the problems andeffects of political socialization on political activities gave seriousthinking to this concept. Followings are three main stages ofpolitical socialization.

The first stage is when a child begins to realize that there isa world around him. Then, he realizes that outside the family thereare more powers. He/she starts living and learning outside family.They put certain demands on the society and recognize authorities,which operate in the society. Second stage is when one reachesadolescence stage and becomes mature enough to participate inpolitical activities. Third stage is when either he/she begins to loveor hate surrounding political institutions and systems. At this stage,values and attitudes become clear.

It should be noted that sociologists have been moreinterested in how people related to groups and society, socialpsychologists have been interested in how individuals learn aboutand adjust to the demands of groups and society, andanthropologists have been interested in how people learn abouttheir culture.

Political socialization is a process that takes place in everysociety. This process begins very early in life and is a continuousprocess. Generally, the main aim of political socialization is tocreate good citizens. Political socialization is the process by whichindividuals learn about politics and that factor can shape politicalculture. Political socialization is an attempt to train people to do

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what the system requires in values, norms, information and skillsthat are considered desirable and useful in the society.Following are some of the important types of political socialization.

Manifest socialization: Certain values and feelings towards apolitical system are directly expressed. There is an explicitcommunication of information to other parties e.g. formaleducation given in educational institutions, talk on electronicand mass media about political problems, and use ofplatform for audience. Such a manifestation can be bothvoluntary and involuntary. It includes all types ofpropaganda. It is not necessary that such a manifestationwill be for the maintenance or stability of political system,rather it can be for instability, change and even revolution.

Latent manifestation: There is no direct approach to theproblems, and that ideas are transmitted indirectly.

Particularistic socialization: Political ideas of individuals aredirected towards a particular value, which they are requiredto adhere and appreciate. Thus, all political energies aredirected in that direction alone.

Universalistic socialization: Here, political energies are notdirected in one direction, but a liberal outlook is developed.One then can learn and perform several roles. Such rolescan be in any walk of life.

The process of political socialization is to create a nominalinterest among the people, to inculcate value, discipline, andteaches people to become obedient, and to inculcate some loftyvalues.

What is the importance of political socialization for thepolitical system?

David Easton says that political socialization creates areservoir of support for political system. He further adds thatpolitical system is a set of human interactions in which authoritativeallocation of values take place. In political system we have input,output, adaptation, and maintenance. Political socialization is theadaptation and maintenance function of political system. Politicalsocialization is interested in maintaining the status quo. The wholeexercise of political socialization is to exercise order and stability,and normally political socialization is a pro-stable process.

Citizens are trained to believe that political system is goodand responsive. Reservoir of support ensures non-active andsupportive citizens. Political socialization brings changes in public

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opinion. It helps in the creation of political culture and modifies thatto the changing needs.

There is close relationship between political culture &political socialization. Both are closely linked and connected witheach other. Political socialization maintains and transforms politicalculture of a group. It maintains political culture by successfullytransmitting it from an old generation to a new one. The process ofpolitical socialization in every society involves a combination ofthree tasks of maintaining, transforming, and creating a newpolitical culture. How we develop political culture in fact is a processcalled political socialization. In brief, it is difficult to separate politicalsocialization from political culture.

12. 5 SUMMARY

Socialization is a life long process which enables the child tolearn the content of his culture and the many behavioural patternsof the group to which s/he belongs. The process and effects ofsocialization are most pronounced in early childhood when thefamily consciously or unconsciously teaches the child certain typesof behaviour as well as beliefs. Regardless of where we live, we areall products of socialization. Human beings are social animals, andwe need to learn the cultural and behavioural patterns of the groupto which we belong. Socialization is the only way an individual canbecome a full member of society. It is the only way we can transmitour social heritage from one generation to the next.

Check your Progress1. What is resocialization? Explain the concept with examples.2. Write an essay on Resocialization3. Explain the concept of Gender socialization4. Explain the concept of Political socialization

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12. 6 SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Bandura, A. 1977Social Learning Theory, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

2. Bukatko, Danuta and MarvinW. Daehler. 2004Child Development, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

3. Mead, Margaret. 1963.Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, New York:

Pearson Education Inc4. Piaget, J. 1929.

The Child’s Conception of the World, London: Routlegde andKegan Paul.5. Watson, John B, 1930.

Behaviourism, New York: Norton

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13

SOCIAL CHANGE

Unit Structure

13.0 Objectives.

13.1 Introduction.

13.2 Meaning and Definition.

13.3 Theories of Change.

13.3.1 Evolutionary Theory.

13.3.2 Functionalist Theory.

13.3.3 Conflict Theory.

13.4 Factors of Social Change.

13.5 Resistance to Change.

13.6 Conclusion.

13.7 Questions.

13.8 References.

13.0 OBJECTIVES

To understand the meaning of social change.

To make the students know the various theories of socialchange.

To identify the factors responsible for social change.

To understand the various theories related to change.

13.1 INTRODUCTION

People long for stability, security through continuity.However, no society remains static or stable. Society is constantlychanging in it’s structure & function. This change in the society isinevitable. It’s a continuous process. Some changes are willinglyaccepted by the society, some are not. Speed of change alsovaries from society to society. Some societies experience speedychange, some take long period.

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Social scientists are trying to understand the process ofsocial change, the direction of social change & various factors thatbring this social change. The word change refers to anything that isdone differently. It does not necessarily mean the social change,because all the changes cannot be regarded as social changes.

13.2 MEANING & DEFINITION

If we say that, society is a complex network of relationshipthen social change would mean change in social relationship.Different sociologists have tried to explain social change by definingit in different ways.

According to T. B. Bottmore “social change refers to changeoccurring in social structure or in institution or in the relationshipbetween the institutions.”

According to Kinsley Davis “social change is change whichoccurs in the social organization i.e. its’s structure & function.”

Social change may be defined as the process in which isdiscernible significant alteration in the structure & functioning of aparticular social system.

Thus, social change is an universal phenomenon. It is aprocess that also implies continuity. Social change is thus inevitable& a demand of time.

13.3 THEORIES OF CHANGE

The theories of social change are of four types. Some showthe existence of more or less general & irreversible trends. Secondtype takes the form of conditional & structural laws. The third typedeals with the forms of change & the fourth type deals with causesor factors of change. The details are discussed in the followingtable :-

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Table : 1 : TYPES OF THEORIES FO CHANGE

TYPE DEFINITION EXAMPELS

1 Search for trends Parsons : trend towardsUniversalism

Comte : the three stages Rostow : the stages of

growth

2 a. Conditional Laws Parson : Industrialization Nuclear family

Dahrendorf : Industrialization Disappearance of classconflicts

b. Structural Laws Nurkse : Vicious circle ofpoverty

Bhaduri : Reproductivenature of semi-feudalrelations of production.

3 Forms of change Hegelian triad Kuhn : scientific revolutions

4 Causes of change Weber : the rotestant ethic McClelland : the achieving

society

We will discuss the following three types of theories in detail

I EvolutionaryII FunctionalistIII Conflict

13.3.1 Evolutionary theory of change

The concept of evolution implies order, change &composition of given populations by such processes as mutation &natural selection. Often the analogy between the development of anorganism & the development of human society is made or implied,hence the concept of social evolution has been used to refer tocertain definite stages through which all societies were belived topass, in the passage from a simple to a more complex form.

Classical evolutionary theory, was based on theassumptions that the history of human societies represented thehistory of their development from a simple, hardly differentiated, i.e.‘backward’ state to more complex i.e.- ‘advanced’ state. In the 19th

& early 20th c conjectures about unilineal societal developmentcharacterized the study of social evolution.

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Theorists taking the evolutionary approach differed in manyparticulars. August Comte [1798-1857] viewed society as passingthrough three main epoch :-

1. The theological & military epoch in which supernaturalpreoccupations dominate the culture & military conquestsalvery are the major social goals.

2. The metaphysical & juridical epoch which is a transitionalepoch between the first & the third &

3. The scientific & industrial epoch in which positivism displacesreligious speculation & peaceful economic production displaceswar making as the dominant aim of social organization.

Sir Henry Maine [1822-1888] viewed the progress ofcivilization as a series of stages between early forms of social orderbased on patriarchy & status & later forms based on freedom &contract.

Herbert Spencer, in his principles of sociology, felt that insocial life there was a change from simple to complex forms fromthe homogenous to the heterogeneous & that there was withsociety integration of the ‘whole’ & a differentiation of the parts.

E. B. Taylor, in his great work, primitive culture, 1871, linkedhis observations covering a wide range of different societies to theevolutionary framework. In particular, be sought to establish asequential development of religious forms: a concern which alsomotivated Sir James Frazer in the Golden Baugh : A study inComparative Religion & Emile Durlkheim in his, les elementarinessde la vie religious, 1912, Karl Marx & F. Angles in Das 1848, putforward a materialist variant of evolutionary theory when they wouldbe transition from capitalist control to rule by the proletariat similarto the earlier development whereby capitalism itself replacedfeudalism.

The evolutionary doctrine provided a broad generalframework through which the whole progress of human societycould be conceptualized. The neo-evolutionary theory of societyfocused more on the apparent variation of change patterns withrespect to certain social groups, regions of organization as theirmajor focus of analysis while the classical evolutionary theory dealtwith the mankind, civilization or some institutional ideal type ofsociety.

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13.3.2 The Functionalist Theory of Change

The functionalists presented the best known theoreticalapproach that views exogenous forces as the source of majorchanges in society. The early functionalists were involved in by thevariety of socio-cultural phenomena & by the uniformity of certaincharacteristics of the various societies. This led them to the ideathat cultural manifestations & social institution were closely relatedto the satisfaction of basic human needs. Eg :- Theories of RadcliffeBrown & Malinowski, Needs were largely considered to beconstant only the societal organization to meet the needs arevariable. Social change hence, ban be understood as change of theinstitutional arrangements available to take care of those needs oras change of the manifest & latent functions of these institutions.Equilibrium was considered as the most important assumption withwhich the functionalists view society. Eg :- Kingsley Davis, TalcottParsons etc. In most general terms, a system is said to be inequilibrium when its component parts are so compatible with eachother, barring an outside disturbance, none of them will change itsposition or relation to the others in any significant way. A theory ofsocial equilibrium is a theory that seeks to uncover the generalcondition for the maintenance of a society in stable equilibrium & tospecify the mechanism by which that stability is preserved orestablished after the occurrence of outside disturbances.

13.3.3 The Conflict Theory of Change

Common to all conflict theoretical approaches is that theyexplain change in terms of antagonism or tension producingelements that are present in the social system. The causes of suchconflicts leading to societal changes are especially sought in thoseelements of the social structure which on the other band are relatedto the establishment & sanctioning of social norms & on the otherhand to the control & allocation of scare resources such as income,property, prestige, influence & authority. These theories focus onprocesses of social life that tend to ward instability in & conflictbetween parts of society or simply the actors concerned. Change isseen as a dialectical relationship between dominant elements ofsociety (central values, ideologies, power relations, distribution ofresources etc.) & those arrangements that compete with or opposethe former. Karl Marx was are of the earliest exponents of conflicttheory.

In Marxism, the basis of conflict is to be found in the socialrelations of production. Thus all supporting social institutionssupport the different ‘sides’. In this conflict & the unitary concept ofa cultural & social system tend to disappear. The political &economic institutions of capitalist society are seen as representing‘the political & economic way of bourgeoisie’ & as against this there

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is reference of the ‘political economy of the working class’. Soconflict between classes in the social relations of production spillsover to become a conflict in all spheres & the social systembecomes one of two conflicting classes.

Ralf Dahrendorf, on the other hand has suggested that intra-institutional conflicts occur about authority in all institutions & thatthere need not necessarily be any overlapping. In particular heargues that industrial conflict has become institutionalized i.e.-confined within a particular institutional context. Lockwood, hasdrawn attention to the importance of conflict between institutionalsub systems Eg ;- there is no necessary harmony betweenindustrial & educational institutions.

13.4 FACTORS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

For social change, not one cause may be effective. Theremay be many factors which set the process in motion. Althoughsocial causation is always a multiple causation, some sociologistshave emphasized on factor over another, we would take intoaccount all the factors, though some consider social & culturalfactors to be most predominant.

1. Physical Factors – Changes in the physical environmentare not rapid, but the occasional changes in the environment bringtotal changes in human social lives. Eg :- Earthquake, storms,heavy rainfall. These changes force people to migrate to new areashence people have to change themselves according to that society.This brings out change I culture, way of clothing, manners etc.

2. Biological Factors - Biological factors too have someindirect influence upon social change. Among the biological factorsis the qualitative aspect of the population related to heredity. Thequalitative aspect of population is based upon powerful & greatmen & their birth is dependent to a large extent upon heredity &mutation. Hence, biological factors play a part in social change tothat extent. In addition to this the biological principals of naturalselection & struggle for survival are constantly producing alterationsin society.

3. Technological Factors – Human beings are never satisfied.In the process of satisfying his wants man devised new means &created new needs. To satisfy his new needs man invented newtechniques to use natural resources. This technological factorbrought out severe changes in the society.

Technological factors has immense influence in socialchange. Technology changes society by changing our

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environments to which we in turn adopt. This change is usually inthe material environment & the adjustment we make to the changesoften modifies customs & social institutions. In this way, theincrease in new machines & methods due to new discoveries hashad a very great influence upon social institutions. In the modernage, technological factors are among the predominant causes ofsocial change.

4. Economic Factors – Karl Marx has given economicinterpretation of social changes. With the changes in the economicsystem, the entire society changes in its structure & functioning.Economic conditions in countries do affect the health, mortality,marriages, divorce rate, suicide, crime & emigration etc. It can alsobring social unrest & revolution & war. Of course not all the socialchanges are necessarily caused by economic conditions. Changeshave also occurred due to educational moulding in peoplesattitudes etc.

5. Cultural Factors – The main cause of social change is thecultural factors. Changes in the culture are accompanied by socialchange. Changes & variations in culture inevitably influence socialrelationships. Culture gives speed & direction to social change &determines the limits beyond which social changes cannot occur.Max Weber, has proved this hypothesis by a comparative study ofreligious & economic institution.

6. Environmental Factors – The geographists haveemphasized the impact of geographical environment upon humansociety Huntington has gone so far as to assert that an alteration inthe climate is the sole cause of the evolution & devolution ofcivilizations & cultures Even if these claims of the geographists areto be discarded, it can not be denied that floods, earthquakes,excessive rain, drought, change of season etc. have significanteffect upon social relationships & these are modified by suchnatural occurrences.

7. Psychological Factors – Most sociologists regardpsychological factors as important elements in social change. Thecause of social change is the psychology of man himself. Man is bynature a lover of change. He is always trying to discover new thingsin every sphere in life & is always anxious for novel experience. Asa result of this tendency, the mores, traditions, customs etc. ofevery human society are perpetually undergoing change. The formof social relationships is constantly changing in the process ofinterations between the tendencies of moving towards the newwhile preserving the old . New customs & methods replace the oldtraditional customs while old traditions that demand change withtime adapts to changing traditions.

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8. Other Factors – In addition to the above mentioned factors,another factor of social change in the appearance of new opinions& thoughts. Eg :- Changes in the attitudes towards dowry, castesystem, female education etc. have resulted in widespread socialvariations & modifications. In fact a majority of the social revolutionstake place as a result of the evolution of new ways of thinking. War,thoughts of great thinkers i.e.- Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx etc.influence the population & has socio-economic impact causingsocial change.

13.5 RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Any change is not accepted easily. As we have seen unlessthere is mental preparation, no change is accepted by the society.Thus there are various factors which hinder the social change.

1. Inertia – People should feel the dissatisfaction with existingsituation, then only social change can take place. But many timespeople are so much used to that lethargic situation that they do notwish to change the situation. They have no mental capacity to fightagainst the situation & to change it. Such attitude is one of theobstacles in social change.

2. Habit – Habit is developed through repeated actions for along period of effect to break that habit is always resisted.

3. Custom & Tradition – People have inculcated the tradition& custom through fore father so much that any revolutionary idea tochange the custom is always criticized.

4. Vested Interest – Resistance to the change comes formsuch group of people who would be threatened by that change. Anysuggested change is likely to have resistance when it’s notbeneficial to the personal ambitions.

5. Lack of Proper Knowledge – Social change is resisted bythose who lack the knowledge of a new discovery. For want offacts, misconception & misunderstandings influence attitudes ofpeople against any change. Illiteracy & ignorance makeunderstanding of any technological innovation difficult. It tookgenerations for the Baigas of Central India to accept iron ploughfor they were not prepared to hurt their mother earth with a knife. Itis necessary, therefore to educate the people before introducingany change in their native, traditional setting. Knowledge can clearmisconceptions & make people accept change readily.

6. Desire For Stability – Any change disrupts normal routinelife in which people find stability. They are not sure that the changeis going to be beneficial or harmful. They tend to be apprehensive

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about it. It is the desire for stability that makes people resistchange.

7. Suspicion – When people suspect that a given change isharmful, anti-social or irreligious, they resist it. Those who believethat taking vaccine against smallpox is to arouse the wrath ofgoddess ‘Mata’ refuse to take inoculation. Superstitions, religiousbeliefs & prejudices often contribute to the suspicion that illiterate,ignorant, tradition bound people entertain against any innovation.

These are some of the stumbling blocks in the process ofacceptance of social change. However, with education, persuasion,deliberation it is possible to prepare the people mentally to acceptthe change, if it is meant for their well-being & welfare of the societyat large. Attitudes of the people can not be changed with the strokeof a pen, by passing laws or by any other forcible, drasticmeasures. When attitudes change favorably, the speed of socialchange is accelerated.

13.6 CONCLUSION

All societies change continuously. The world in which we livethe physical environment, people and culture undergo changes.Society is not static. It is dynamic in the sense that alterations ofvarious forms & dimensions are continuously taking place in it.Every moment of our life, we encounter some change or the other.There are changes of style & fashion, of technology, of marketconditions, of systems, of education, of forms of government, oflikes and dislikes and of individual and group preferences & so on.

Thus social change is change in the social relationship. Thisimplies that it refers to changes in the social structure and socialrelationships of the society.

13.7 QUESTIONS

1. What do you understand by social change?

2. Discuss any one theory of social change in detail?

3. Explain the factors responsible for accelerating the process ofchange?

4. Discuss the impact of social change on our environment?

5. Which are the factors that hinder social change?

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13.8 REFERENCES

1. Sharma, Ram Nath (1968) : Principles of Sociology, Madras :Asia Publishing House.

2. Abraham M.F.(1990) : Modern Sociological Theroy : AnIntroduction, New Dellhi : Oxford utv. Press

3. Kuppuswamy B (1972), Social Change in India , Delhi, VikasPublishing House Pvt. Ltd.

4. Srinivas M.N. (1966), Social Change in Modern India,Hyderabad : Orient Longman.

5. So, Alvin Y. (1990) : Social change and development -Modernization, dependency and world system theories : SagePublications.

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14

ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Unit Structure :

14.0 Objectives

14.1 Introduction

14.2 What is environment?

14.3 Sustainable Development

14.4 Impact of social change on environment

14.5 Conclusion

14.6 Questions

14.7 References

14.0 OBJECTIVES

To understand the meaning of environment. To understand what is sustainable development. To make the students know the impact of social change on

environment.

14.1 INTRODUCTION

People are dependent on the natural environment formeeting all their needs & therefore the inter actions between people& environment can not be separated. What is important, is to studythe impacts of using resources & how best to manage these, sothat human & environmental needs can be met now in the future.

People have inhabited India for ages & ages & have usedthe natural resources for food, shelter, energy & other needs. Theways humans have used & managed the environment havechanged over the years, but in the last century the population hasgrown exponentially. Exponential population growth is not unique toIndia, however, in the light of this, there has been greater attentionboth nationally & internationally on ‘sustainable development ‘. This

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means meeting social needs for present & future generations bysustainable development.

What Is Causing Social Change? – The focus in India at presentis on meeting basic needs i.e. ensuring that all citizens have properhousing, water supply & sanitation, electricity, health care & otherservices. There has also been radical changes to the constitutionso that it now reflects the interest of all sectors of population,creates empowerment of individuals & communities & upholds therights of humans & the environment.

What Pressure Is Social Change Putting On The Environment?– The Indian population is growing & more people means greaterdemands on the natural resources & environmental services as wellas increasing the amount of waste & pollution that is generated.These has also been an enormous movement of people to urbanareas both form rural areas & from other countries. Thisconcentrates the pressures on the environment & can lead toproblems of sanitation, pollution & crime directly affecting humanhealth & quality of life.

Differences in wealth among the people of India have alsopressurized natural resources. The more affluent people tend toconsume more resources & generate more waste on a commercial& domestic level. Eg. Wealthier people, tend to use more resourcessuch as energy & water & commercial agricultural & industrialdevelopment transforms natural habitats & generates wastes &pollution. Poor people exert different environmental pressures,cultivating unsuitable areas of land, overgrazing the veld &removing large quantities of wood for fuel.

Changes in values and beliefs have also contributed toenvironmental change in India. As people move away from ruralareas into an urban, often consumerist setting, they lose theconnection with nature & forget the importance of maintainingenvironmental services such as water resources.

14.2 WHAT IS ENVIRONMENT ?

The interaction between environment and society is an areaof major concern to modern sociology. The quality of our social lifedepends on the quality of the natural environment, and humanactions have a direct impact on the ecosystem. According toMilbrath (1989 : 607), human actions have brought about morechanges to the planet during the last two centuries than changes toour planet from all causes over the course of the last billion years. It

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is estimated that the global economy has expanded more in the lastseven years than in the 10,000 years since agriculture began.

The technology that enabled the unprecedented economicgrowth of the 20th century has had a dramatic effect on our naturalresources. Global consumption of wood has doubled, paper usehas increased six times, and the use of tossil rules is up nearly five-fold. Grain consumption has tripled, and fish consumption hasincreased five-fold. The resulting environmental stress includesshrinking horsts, and werrands, eroding soil and wral reets,pollution of international waters, collapsing fisheries, vanishingplant and animal species and temperatures. Half the world’spopulation lives on coastlines, rivers and estuaries, including, ruralpeople who rely on waterways for their liver hoods- fishing,hansportation, communication, and irrigation for farmlands. Basedon U. N. population prediction, by 2050 one in five people is likelyto live in a country with severe shortages of fresh water seriousenough to threaten health and economic well-being.

Unlike other creatures, humans make deliberate choices thatafter the face of the planet, therefore they have the primaryresponsibility for maintaining a healthy and diverse ecosystem.More than at any other time in history, people now reause that thecivilization they have built may not survive. The limits of Growthperspective which emerged in the 1970s points out that unlimitedgrowth is neither desirable nor sustainable. Petroleum, natural gas,Clean air, Fresh water, and the earth’s top soil are all finiteresources that will exhaust if we continue to pursue growth at anycost. The limits to growth perspective agues that humanity mustimplement effective policies to control the growth of population,material production and the use of resources in order to avoidenvironmental degradation.

Today there is a general consensus that the world cannot beat peace unless all living things truly experience the ecosystem inequilibrium. As crucial relationships between worlds species andtheir environment are attend and even destroyed, the integrity ofthe planet’s life-support system is threatened. An area nearly thesize of western Europe has lost most of its productivity from man’sabusive use. Another 2.25 billion acres, an area larger thanAustralia, has degraded, requiting care and restoration. WorldwatchInstitute Calculates that top soil loss means an annual decreasesingrain production of a million ????. as we deplete precious naturalresource and degrade the environment we also destroy its ability toreiuvenate itself. For example, scientists predict that the North Seawill be bead within the next few years. For thousands of years, itwasable to absorb the fifth of Europe’s cities but it also had thecapacity to cleanse inself. Now the assault has becomeoverpowering as European nations dump around 700,000 tonnes of

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merary, nitrogen phosphorus, cadmium, lead and zinc into this seaevery year, Today we share this planet with numerous instrumentsof total destruction; over 30,000 nuclear weapons and untoldquqntines of deadly biological and chemical material. Heavy use offertilizers, pesticides, and hertocides contaminates rivers andground water. Ozone depletion destraction of rain to rests, andpollution of water ways have disabtions transnationalconsequences.

There is also injustice in the way the industrialized worldprogress has been paid by developing countries. Every year theindustrialized west produces millions of tones of industrial and toxicwaste and often uses the Third World as a convenient dumpingground. The united states alone produces about 160 million tonesof solid waste per year. Poor counties such as Haiti Cameroon, andmany others have been “persuadea’ to accept, for a fee, toxicgarbage from rich industrialized countries, As much as to per contcarbon dioxide emission, which cause global warming, it fromEurope and America. The sea level rise due to global warmingcould destroy countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, and even Egypt.Abdul Gayoom of the mal tives said in the United Nations: Globalwarming means the death of our country of 1,190 small islands, wedid not contribute to this impending catastrophe to our nation andalone we cannot save overserves. Japan is the largest importes oftimber in the world primarily for paper production and disposablechopsticks. The forests of the Philippines, Thailand, Canada, andMalaysia are being destroyed to fulltill Japan’s needs. Almost onebillion these are cut down every year to provide disposable diapersto babies. Although they cover only about 7 percent of the earth’ssurface, tropical rain forests are home to almost 70 percent of allplant and animal species most of which have not yet beenidentified. The global ecological crisis is leading scientists to a newunderstanding of the relationship of man with nature, and the needto take a holilstic approach to problems.

Let us now look at some of the major environmental issues.

Global warming or the greenhouse effect is one of the majorconcerns of the world today. It has been well documented thatcholrofly carbons or CFCs which are found in so many householdproducts, when released into the air, accumulate in the upperatmosphere, and reacting with sunlight they form chlorine atoms-here atoms destroy the ozone layer which serves to limit theamount of harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun reaching theearth. The depletion of the ozone layer is linked to global warming,increase in human skin cancers, desirous effect on plants andanimals, and the re-emergence of disease such as cholera andvinal levers. Although there is some skepticism about the impact ofglobal warming, there is mounting evidence that it is the planetsbiggest environmental problem. There is also no doubt that the

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advanced industrialized nations are the biggest consumer ofenergy. Industrialized countries represent roughly 20 percent of thehumanity but utilize over 80 percent of the world’s energy. Thepoorest 20 percent in the world consume 1.3 percent of the world’sgoods and services and account for about 8 percent ofcarbonaioxide emissions. A typical American adult consumes onehundred times more energy every year than the average memberof the world’s poorest societies. Yet, the united states has failed torality the 1997 kyoto Perotocol signed by 160 nations whichidentified wap industrialized and developing countries can reduceemission of gases responsible for the greenhouse effect. And thelatest reports by experts warn that by 2010 aviation emissionsalone will wipe out any progress made on emission-reductionthrough the Kyoto-Protocol.

Water conservation is another major environmental issue.The simple truth is that with out water life and growth ceases. It isestimated that 1,000 tonnes of water are needed to produce asingle tonne of harvested grain. Worldwide, agriculture uses about65 percent of all water removed from rivers, lakes and aquiters forhuman activities, compared with 25 percent of industries. Accordingto current predictions, within the next thirty years, more than abillion people in north Africa and the middle east will lack necessarywater. The global consumption of water, estimated at about 5 billioncubic feet per year, has Hipled since 1950 and is expanding fasterthan the world’s population. Given the population growth, nearlythree billion people or 40 percent the projected world population willlive in water stress counties by 2015. ground water mining can leadto a variety of irreversible effects. In wastal areas, over pumpingcan cause, saltwater to invade test water aquifers, contaminatingsupplies. This has occurred in Gujarat where irrigators have hcavilyover pumped local aquifers. Groundwater depletion can alsoreduce the earths national capacity to stone water. Anotherproblem is that many of the major rivers of the world are completelytapped out during the deier part of the year that very little water iscost to the sea during the dry season. This is true of most rivers inIndia including the Ganga. Some cities dump untreated sewae andpaetially cremated bodies in the Ganga. Industrial waste,pesticides, and herbicides enter the waterways through dumping aswell as run off from farms and homes. Such pollution sometimecauses massive fish kills and many chemicals became moreconcentrated as they pass up through the food chain, with thehumans receiving the highest doses. In short, there all two issuesrelative to water. The first is, to course, conservation. Rain waterhawests and small check dams are significant measures toconseue water. The second issue relates to deaning up of thewater way and measures needed in prevent future pollution of thesources of water. Kaltes pollution results not only from internationaldumping but also from the sun off of agricultural fecticizers,

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chemical and wastes. Ganga Action Plan, launched in 1985, toclean up the river and restore water quality is an example of abelated initiative on the part of the government.

Deterioration of air quality is another environmental problem.The thick, black smoke beiched form factory smokes tricks andemissions from motors vehicles constitute the major source of airpollution. The rich countries have taken a number of steps ofreduce air pollution. Scientists have devised new Technological toreduce nokious of step’s exhaust from factories and automobiles.The coal tires that choked London a halt-century ago are now forbidden. However, in many less developed countries people stillrelyon wood, wal, peat, and other fuels for cooking and heating. InIndia it took a ruling from the apex will to force automobiles toreduce emissions in the wake of continuous deterioration of allquality in the nation’s capital.

Preserving the rain forests is yet another environmentalissue. South America, especially Brazil, west –central Africa andSout-east Asia are home to regions of dense forestation. Theword’s rain forests cover an area of some 2 billion acres, roughly 7percent of the earth’s total land surface. At the current rate ofdestruction the rain forests will disappear by the end of the nextcentury. India has only 2 percent of forest and the continuous lossof free cover and top soil hassled to droughts and Hoods.Deforestation also impacts on biological diversity because of theshrinking habitat available to faunal and Horal species. Logging,mining, gracing, agriculture, industrialization, and urbanization alterterrestrial and aquatic habitats in warp that make less able tosupport life or valuable ecosystem services. Consider the case oflarge dams. There are nearly 40,000 large dams and countlesssmaller dams around the world. Needless to say, dams, andresewoirs are not an unmitigated evil. They increase cropproduction by providing additional irrigation, check Hoods, andcreate opportunities for developing inland pisriculture. But they alsomean huge displacement and submergence of vast tracks of land,often previous forest land. There has been no public debate in Laosof the government decision to feed Thailand’s energy apperite bybuilding more than twenty-three dams by the year 2010. In India thechipko movement raised the level of public consciousness aboutthe dangers to which all forms of will huge are exposed. And thedemands made by the Narmada Bachao Andolan spotlight thedevelopment Vs. environment debate.

Finally, the loss of biodiversity is a significant environmentalproblem which requires immediate attention. In this hunt for newarticles of fancy, man began to kill bird and beast, not to improvethe living standards but to satisfy his ego and fancy. Some blidspecies became almost extinct because they had beautiful

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plumages with which wealthy women warked to adom they hats.The chino and tiger population suffered because some peoplebelieved that they bonus and somebody parts had aphrodisiacproperties. Also, thousands of spcies of palants and animals arebeing lost each year to wars, pests, disease, climate changeurbanization, the global marketing of exotic breeding material andlarge state industrial agriculture our planets biodiversity providesvast and varied sources of food. Just think of the world without theBengal Tiger, Chinese panda, Australian Kangaroo, theAfricangiraffe, of the magnificent exphants. About 12 percent of animalspeies including 41 percent of all recognized rish speies live in the1 percent of the earth’s surface that is fresh water. According toexperts, at least one – fifth of all fresh water fish species havebecome extinct, threatened, or endangered in recent years andentire fresh water faunas have disappeared. The experience ofAsia chicken formers who were forced to busy or incinerate millions& Chickens because of the avian true may foreshadow a largerepidemic on the horizon. Over ten thousand varieties of wheat usedto be cultivated in China and the Philippines had thousands ofvariety of rice. Now there are only a few varieties lift in India, theNayadanya movement is responding to the loss of biodiversity byprotecting local varieties of wheat, rice, and other crops bycataloging then and declaring them common property. Navdanyahas also set up locally owned seed banks, farm supply stores andstorage facilities, and has helped establish ‘Zones of freedom’ –villages that pledge to reject chemical fertilizers and pesticides,generally engineered seeds and patents on life.

In the wards of Abramovtie (Brawn 1996-77).

We need to see the ecosystem in their entirely : rivers andlakes, along with their entire watersheds and all the physical,chemical and biological elements, all parts of complex integratedsystems. Human inhabitants are also part of those systems and weneed to learn to manage such system in ways that maintain theirintegrity. In such a flexible ecosystem – based approach, resourceswould be managed over large enough was to allow their speciesand ecological processes to remain intact while allowing humanactivity. On a social level, all stakeholders would be involvedindetining issues, setting priorities, and implementing solutions.

14.3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development (SD) is the process which effectvery balances the needs of development which concerns not thehealth of the environment. it is characterized by economic andsocial growth that does not exhaust the resources of a host country,that respect and safeguards the economic, cultural and naturalenvironment; that involves grass roots participation and buildsindigenous institutions, and that is nurtimed by eco-friendly policies

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and programmes. Developments is sustainable only when itpermanently requires investment in human capital-in education,health, hood security, and the total well-being of the population.The United Nations sponsored two worldwide summits the Rioconference on environment and development. In 1992 and theJohnnesburg Kbrld summit on SD in 2002 which encouragedgovernment to partnel with NGOs and private industry to make abold commitment to applying SD principles in every area wherehumans impact on the environment.

As the time (August 2002 : A 8) special on Green century put it

With 6.1 billion people relying on the resources of the samesmall planet, we are coming to realize that we are drawing from afinite account. The amount of crops, animal and others biomatierwe extract from the earth each year exceeds what the planet canreplace by an estimated 20 percent, meaning it takes 14.4 monthsto replenish what we use in 12 deficit spending of the worst kind.Sustainable development works to reverse that, to expand toresource base and adjust how we use it so we are living ofbiological interest without ever touching principal.

Two billion people lack reliable access to safe, nutritiousfoods, and 800 millions a them including 800 million children arechronically malnourished. Yet, most of the agricultural practices arebased on unsustainable development. We resort to improvedvarieties which require enormous amounts of water and chemicalfertilizers Betler crop rotation and irrigation can help but what iseven more important is development of indigendus crops and theuse of organic natural nourishment. One case in poing is theprobiotic fertilizers made of composts of agricultural waste andanimal manual developed by the Ahmedabad – based institute of orstudies and transformation studies have shown that probioticfertilizers make souls and plants heautheir, capale of withstandingpests and droughts.

Although the world 70 percent water, only 2-5 percent of itsfresh and only a fraction of that is accessible. With increasingpopulation growth and urbanization, by 2025 nearly two-third of theworlds population will be facing serious water shortages. Sinceagriculture accounts for almost two0third of the fresh waterconsumed, the UN calls for a ‘more crop per drop’ approach basedon efficient irrigation techniques. Rain water conservation andwatershed management and more prudent use of water areimportant SD principles.

The world’s appetice for energy is growing and the demandsare met by burning fossil, fuels such as oil, wal, and gas whichrelease more carbon diovide and other greenhouse gases. SD

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principles require the development and use of cheaper, cleaner andrenewable sources. Wind and solar power can be harnessed everyefficiently small communities may be encouraged to setup micro-hydroelectric plants from streams and livers.

It is estimated that 36 million acres of forest are racedannually and more than 11,000 species of plants and animals arethreatened with extinction. Only now we have come to realize theperilus inherent in the prevailing models of development : theatmosphere tilled with toxins, oleano polluted and tishood toexhaustion, rain forests chopped down water contaiminated andwasted, soil eraded and truned bareen, and essential flora andfauna lost forever. So there is a new urgency to follow thefundamental principal of SD : balancing economic growth withenvironmental protection. The programme of sustainabledevelopment includes the following : use of indigenous technology,grass roots participation in development, eco friendly agriculturewith organic manual and crop diversity, rain water conservation,recycling waste material, use of renewable source of energy suchas solar and wind power, saving forests, minimicing all types ofpollution and preservaliors of biodiversity. Time (August 2002 : 19)observes :

Those who protess to care about the environment and yetsoon the goal of development only undermine both causes for thepoorest members of the human family in particular, developmentmeans the chance to feed, school and care for themselves andtheir children. But development that takes like account ofsustainability is ultimate self – deteating. Prosperity built on thedespolation of the natural environment is no peroserity at all, only atemporary reprieve tfrom future disaster. The issue is notenvironment vs. development or ecology vs. economy; the two canbe integrated. Nor is this a question of rich vs. poor; both have aninterest in sustainable development.

14.4 WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL CHANGEON THE ENVIRONMENT?

More people means more demand for resources. In 1996domestic demand for water was 11% of the total. By 2030 it ispredicated that this demand will increase to 23% of the total.Already alternative sources of fresh water such as desalination ofsea water & importing water from other countries are beinginvestigated to meet this demand, although these are currentlyprohibitively expensive & may not be environmentally sustainable.

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Uncontrolled settlement development can also result inproblems of pollution, health hazards & inadequate housing &services provision contributing to informal sector activities & crime.Natural resources in areas surrounding settlements are generallyunder greater pressures than those in areas of less dense humanhabitation.

The impact of poverty on the environment includedeforestation from excessive collection of wood for fuel, soildegradation through cultivation of unsuitable soils & exploitation ofrare & endangered species to supplement incomes. An inability toadequately provide for the basic needs of the population will lead tocollapse of the natural ecosystem services & deterioration in qualityof life.

The government has developed a number of policies &passed a number of laws which aim to alleviate the pressures ofsocial imbalances on natural resources & to promote sustainabledevelopment. These include the reconstruction & developmentprogramme, a white paper on population policy & the national crimeprevention strategy.

The government has also initiated several housingdevelopment schemes, electrification & water services schemes, aswell as identifying local areas for economic development & jobcreation. The largest proportion of the national budget is directedtowards education, reflecting the governments policy priorityconcern of nation building and empowerment of it’s people.

14.5 CONCLUSION

Over the millennia, changes in the natural environment haveimpacted on the social life of human beings. Loss of forest,desertification, soil erosion, environmental degradation of climaticchanges have significantly influenced the way human beings live ingroups. Many of these changes have been gradual & slow. Todayair & water pollution, acid rain, the greenhouse effect & dumping ofchemical wastes have led to a worldwide environmental movement.Public awareness has forced national governments & internationalorganizations to act in defense of our planet. In many ways it haschanged both the individual of the social way of life.

14.6 QUESTIONS

Q.1 Discuss some of the major environmental issues in detail.Q.2 “It is very essential to preserve the rain forest” – comment.Q.3 What do you mean by sustainable development?

Q.4 What will be the impact of social change on environment?

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14.7 REFERENCES

1. Abraham Francis M, Prespectives on Modernization : Towards aGeneral Theory of Thrid World Development, Washington DC :University Press of America, 1980.

2. Abraham Francis M, An Introduction to Concepts & Theories,Oxford Utv. Press, New Delhi, 2006.

3. Singh Yogendra, Culture change in India : Identity &Globalization, New Delhi, Rawat Publications, 2002.

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SYLLABUS

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY

F.Y.B.A PAPER - I

OBJECTIVES :

1. To introduce students to the basic concepts in sociology.2. to familiarize students with the theoretical aspects of

different concepts.

1. Sociology as a discipline (15 lectures)

perspectives in Sociology : Functionalist, Conflict,Interpretive, Critical

Sociological Imagination-Developing a sociological outlook. Significance of sociology

2. Culture (15 lectures)

Understanding culture Characteristics of culture Types of culture-Subculture, counterculture Ethnocentrism, Xenocentrism, Cultural relativism Components of culture Towards a global culture

3. Society and Groups (15 lectures)

Evolution of society: Hunting, Food gathering, Feudal,Industrial, Post-Industrial

Types of social groups In group, Out group Primary group, Secondary group Electronic community (networking)

4. Social institutions: Concept and Significance (15 lectures)

Social Stratification Bases of Stratification: Caste, Class, Gender, Age Religion : Church, Sect, Cult Political Institution: State and Government, Types of States Economic Institutions: Capitalism, Socialism, Informal

Economics.

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5. Socialization (15 lectures)

Socialization as a process Agencies of socialization Development of self : C H Cooley, G H Mead Gender socialization Political socialization Resocialization

6. Social Change (15 lectures)

Theories of Change : Evolutionary, Functionalist, Conflict Factors of Social change Resistance of change Environment, Sustainable development and social change

Note: Topics I to III will be done in the first term and topics IVto VI in the second term.

READING LIST

Abraham Francis M (2010). Contemporary Sociology : AnIntroduction to Concepts and Theories. New Delhi : OxfordUniversity Press.

Giddens, Anthony. (2001). Sociology (4th Edition). PolityPress.

Haralambos M and Heals (2009). Sociology Themes andPerspectives. New Delhi : Oxford University Press.

Julia, Jary and David, Jary. (2005). Dictionary of Sociology.Coilins.

Macionis, John, (2005). Sociology, (10th Edition). PrenticeHall.

Marshall, Gordon. Dictionary of Sociology. New Delhi :Oxford University Press

Scheffer and LAmm. (1998). Sociology. (6th Edition).McGraw Hill.